- Largest 3D map built using 47 million galaxies and quasars
- Thousands of robotic fiber arms caught light from distant galaxies
- New data could reshape the understanding of dark energy behaviorr
Astronomers have completed the largest high-resolution 3D map of the universe ever recorded, following a five-year observing campaign that tracked tens of thousands of galaxies.
The project, known as the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument, or DESI, focuses on understanding dark energy, the mysterious force driving the universe’s accelerating expansion.
The survey exceeded its original goals, recording data from more than 47 million galaxies and quasars instead of the planned 34 million. Scientists also collected observations from more than 20 million nearby stars to study the structure of the Milky Way.
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Little robot arms
At the center of the project is a system of 5,000 robotic fiber-optic positioning devices mounted on a telescope in Arizona. These tiny robotic arms move into position approximately every 20 minutes, aligning optical fibers to capture faint light from distant galaxies.
This light is then fed into spectrographs that separate it into its component colors, allowing scientists to calculate how far away each galaxy is from Earth. By combining distance measurements with sky positions, the system builds a layered 3D map that shows how matter is spread across the universe.
The telescope used for the project is the 4-meter Nicholas U. Mayall Telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory. Engineers replaced its original camera with DESI’s fiber-based system so it can measure thousands of galaxies at once.
DESI was built to study how galaxies cluster over different distances and times. These patterns act as markers of how fast the universe expanded in the past and reveal how dark energy affected cosmic growth over billions of years.
Previous results from the project suggested that dark energy may not behave as a stable force. Rather than remaining constant, early data suggested its influence could change over time, though researchers caution that additional data could still change that conclusion.
Completing the planned map does not mark the end of the project. Scientists plan to cover more areas of the sky and to capture more distant galaxies.
Future observations will also revisit existing areas to gather closer data and improve the precision of recorded measurements to help researchers test whether previous hints of dark energy change persist in the larger data set.
Via Science.org
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