To Map the Universe, Astrophysicists Launch Largest Sky Survey Yet
KPNO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/P. Marenfeld
The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) is installed on the Nicholas U. Mayall 4-meter Telescope on Kitt Peak National Observatory near Tucson, AZ.
Newswise Cambridge, MA In 1983, astrophysicists at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian(CfA) released a cosmic map using 2,400 galaxies. Now, CfA scientists are aiming to map 30 million.
In the largest quest yet to map the universe, an international team of researchers is using DESI, or the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument, to survey the skies. Observations officially began today, May 17, at Kitt Peak National Observatory near Tucson, Arizona; the mission will last five years with the goal of mapping 30 million galaxies.
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A five-year quest to map the universe and unravel the mysteries of dark energy is beginning officially today, and University of Michigan researchers were instrumental in the project s development.
The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument, or DESI, is an international collaboration under the aegis of the Department of Energy s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory with primary funding from DOE s Office of Science. The project aims to create a 3D map of the universe, unraveling the mysterious dark energy. To complete its quest, the instrument will capture and study the light from tens of millions of galaxies and other distant objects in the universe.
KPNO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/P. Marenfeld
Astrophysicists at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian (CfA) released a cosmic map using 2,400 galaxies in 1983. Now, CfA scientists are aiming to map 30 million.
In the largest quest yet to map the universe, an international team of researchers is using DESI, or the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument, to survey the skies. Observations officially began today, May 17, at Kitt Peak National Observatory near Tucson, Arizona; the mission will last five years with the goal of mapping 30 million galaxies.
By surveying a vast volume of space, the scientists of the DESI collaboration, including a dozen from the CfA, will be able to address a myriad of questions in modern cosmology: how does the early universe create large-scale structures, how does gravity cause matter to collect and form galaxies, and what might be driving the enigmatic acceleration of the expansion of the universe?
Doubling the Number of Known Gravitational Lenses
Machine learning key to discovery of over 1200 gravitational lenses
CosmoView Episode 19: Doubling the Number of Known Gravitational Lenses
KPNO/CTIO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/Legacy Imaging Survey
Gravitational lenses found in the DESI Legacy Survey data. Examples of gravitational lenses found in the DESI Legacy Survey data.
KPNO/CTIO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/Legacy Imaging Survey
Gravitational lens found in the DESI Legacy Survey data. An example of a gravitational lens found in the DESI Legacy Surveys data. The nearly complete circle in the middle of DESI-015.6763-14.0150 is the image of a background galaxy, gravitationally warped (lensed) by the red galaxy at the center into a near-perfect Einstein ring.
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VIDEO: This is CosmoView Episode 18 for press release noirlab2103: Giant Map of the Sky Sets Stage for Ambitious DESI Survey view more
Credit: Images and Videos:
KPNO/CTIO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/Legacy Imaging Survey, P. Marenfeld, D. Munizaga, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab.
Music: Stellardrone - Airglow.
Astronomers using images from Kitt Peak National Observatory and Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory have created the largest ever map of the sky, comprising over a billion galaxies. The ninth and final data release from the ambitious DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys sets the stage for a ground-breaking 5-year survey with the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI), which aims to provide new insights into the nature of dark energy. The map was released today at the January 2021 meeting of the American Astronomical Society.