Insights from the dark
Scientists on the Dark Energy Survey (DES), to which ETH astronomers from the group of Alexandre Refregier contribute, announced today the public release of their first three years of data. The survey includes information on about 400 million astronomical objects.
The Dark Energy Survey (DES) is a collaboration of more than 400 scientists from 26 institutions in seven countries. ETH Zurich is one of these partners, and members of cosmology research group of Professor Alexandre Refregier are working actively on this survey. The public release of the first three years of DES data was announced at a special session held during the American Astronomical Society meeting in Washington, D.C.. It includes information on about 400 million astronomical objects, among them distant galaxies billions of light years away as well as stars in our own galaxy.
DES scientists are using this data to learn more about dark energy, the mysterious force believed to be accelerating the expansion of the universe, and presented some of their preliminary cosmological findings in the special session. In particular, DES scientists reported now the discovery of eleven new stellar streams, remnants of smaller galaxies torn apart and devoured by our Milky Way.
The public release of the first three years of DES data fulfils a commitment scientists on the survey made to share their findings with the astronomy community and the public. The data cover the full DES footprint — about 5,000 square degrees, or one eighth of the entire sky — and include roughly 40,000 exposures taken with the Dark Energy Camera. The images correspond to hundreds of terabytes of data and are being released along with catalogues of hundreds of millions of galaxies and stars.
(Text adapted from a external page media release of external page Fermilab)