2023-06-13 16:50:08
The universe is extremely large and does not stop growing. To study the dark energythat mysterious force behind the accelerating expansion of the Universe, scientists have begun to use the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESIfor its acronym in English), which will map more than 40 million galaxies, quasars and stars from the Mayall telescope, installed in the Kitt Peak Observatory in Arizona (United States).
The collaboration of this project has made public this Tuesday its first data package, which includes almost two million objects for further analysis.
First Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) data package delivers 80 terabytes from more than 2,400 exposures
The data set covers 80 terabytes fruit of more than 2,400 exhibitions obtained over six months during the “project validation” phase in 2020 y 2021. In this period, between the commissioning of the instrument and the start of official science operations, the researchers ensured that the observation schedule is in line with the scientific objectives of the project, checking how long it took to observe galaxies of different sizes. brightness and validating the selection of objects to observe.
“The fact that DESI works so well, and that the amount of quality data it collected during the validation phase is comparable to the totality of data from previous projects, is a monumental achievement,” he says. Nathalie Palanque-Delabrouilleone of the spokespersons for DESI and a scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) of the US Department of Energy, which manages the experiment.
“This milestone demonstrates that DESI is a unique spectroscopic factory whose data will not only enable the study of dark energy, but will also be required by the entire scientific community to address other topics such as dark matter, gravitational lensingand the galactic morphology”, he added.
DESI’s 5,000 robotic positioners can measure the light from more than 100,000 galaxies in one night
ALTHOUGH use 5,000 robotic positioners to move the optical fibers that collect light from astronomical objects. It is the most powerful multi-object spectrograph in the world, capable of measuring the light of more than 100,000 galaxies in one night. That light tells researchers how far away each galaxy is, making it possible to build a 3D cosmic map.
Los first data they are freely and openly available through the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC). In the same way, it is also possible to view a video on the internet that shows its operation.
DESI is supported by the Office of Science of the United States Department of Energy (DOE) and NERSC, which is an infrastructure of the Office of Science of this department.
It also has additional support from the US National Science Foundation, the UK Council for Science and Technology Facilities, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the Heising-Simons Foundation, the Atomic Energy and Alternative Energy Commission ( CEA) of France, the National Council of Science and Technology of Mexico, the Ministry of Science and Innovation of Spain and the member institutions of DESI.
Spanish participation
From Spain, the Center for Energy, Environmental and Technological Research (VILLAGE), the Institute of Space Sciences (ICE-CSIC), the Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia (IEC), the Institute of High Energy Physics (IFAE), the Institute of Theoretical Physics (IFTjoint center of the Autonomous University of Madrid and the CSIC), the Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia (IAA-CSIC), the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) and the Institute of Cosmos Sciences of the University of Barcelona (ICCUB).
Regarding the Kitt Peak National Observatory, it is a program of the NOIRLab of the National Science Foundation (NSF) of the USA. The DESI collaboration highlights that they have allowed it to conduct scientific research on Iolkam Du’ag (Kitt Peak), a mountain of special significance for a North American indigenous people: the Tohono O’odham Nation .
Fuente: IAC/NSF’s NOIRLab/IFT (UAM/CSIC)
Rights: Creative Commons.
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