A New Telescope is Ready to Start Searching for Answers to Explain Dark Energy
JUNE 6, 2020 BY EVAN GOUGH
Back in 2015, construction began on a new telescope called the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI). Later this year, it will begin its five-year mission. Its goal? To create a 3D map of the Universe with unprecedented detail, showing the distribution of matter.
That detailed map will allow astronomers to investigate important aspects of cosmology, including dark energy and its role in the expansion of the Universe.
DESI is a collaboration between several nations: the USA, UK, France, Spain, and Mexico, with the USA’s Department of Energy Office of Science being the principal funder. Several other institutions and foundations have also contributed. DESI itself is a powerful spectrograph, and it’s being built onto the existing 4m Mayall Telescope at the Kitt Peak Observatory in Arizona.
At its heart, DESI is 5,000 individual, pencil-sized robots. Each of the 5,000 robots controls a single fiber-optic eye, and together they capture a spectra over a wavelength range from 360 nm to 980 nm. It’ll “see” from the near ultraviolet, through visible light, and into the infrared portion of the electrmagnetic spectrum.
More:
https://www.universetoday.com/146390/a-new-telescope-is-ready-to-start-searching-for-answers-to-explain-dark-energy/
