- The largest 3D map built with 47 million galaxies and quasars
- Thousands of fiber robotic arms captured light from distant galaxies
- New data could reshape understanding of dark energy behaviorr
Astronomers have completed the largest high-resolution 3D map of the universe ever recorded, after a five-year observing campaign that tracked tens of millions of galaxies.
The project, known as the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument, or DESI, focuses on understanding dark energy, the mysterious force driving the accelerated expansion of the universe.
The study exceeded its original goals, recording data on more than 47 million galaxies and quasars instead of the 34 million expected. The researchers also collected observations of more than 20 million nearby stars to study the structure of the Milky Way.
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Small robotic arms
At the center of the project is a system of 5,000 fiber-optic robotic positioners mounted on a telescope in Arizona. These small robotic arms move into position about every 20 minutes, aligning optical fibers to capture the faint light of distant galaxies.
That light is then fed into spectrographs that split it into its component colors, allowing scientists to calculate how far each galaxy is from Earth. By combining distance measurements with sky positions, the system builds a layered 3D map that shows how matter is distributed 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, allowing it to measure thousands of galaxies at once.
DESI was built to study how galaxies clump together at different distances and times. Those patterns act as markers of how quickly the universe expanded in the past, revealing how dark energy influenced cosmic growth for billions of years.
Previous results from the project suggested that dark energy might not behave as a constant force. Rather than remaining constant, early data hinted that its influence could change over time, although the researchers caution that additional data could still alter that conclusion.
Completing the planned map does not mark the end of the project. Scientists plan to cover additional regions of the sky and capture more distant galaxies.
Future observations will also review existing areas to collect denser data and improve the precision of recorded measurements to help researchers test whether previous hints about changing dark energy persist in the larger data set.
Through Science.org
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