Fast Forward: The Dark Energy Camera
Get a sneak peak at the new project that will search for mysterious cosmic energies that drive our universe
- By Mark Strauss
- Smithsonian magazine, May 2012, Subscribe
Ever since the Big Bang nearly 14 billion years ago, the universe has been expanding. Astronomers once believed this growth spurt would gradually slow down, but in 1998 they discovered that distant galaxies were actually moving away from one another faster than ever. Instead of hitting the brakes, the universe is flooring the gas pedal.
A new project representing 23 scientific institutions is investigating this mysterious cosmic propellant, called dark energy. The centerpiece is the Dark Energy Camera, which will be operational in July after it is installed in the telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile.
The “lens” of the 5.5-ton camera consists of 62 digital sensors calibrated to detect the light trails of celestial bodies moving away from Earth. Astronomers will collect data on the acceleration of 300 million galaxies to study the properties of dark energy—and why the universe is exceeding its speed limit.
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Comments (3)
This is my question to all the scientist if everything is moving then definately they have kinetic energy from where does it comes?
Posted by nawyn verma on October 14,2012 | 02:08 PM
With due respect, I would like to stress upon viz. request your esteemed organization to exactly evaluate and uphold the sketch of the present universe in the midst of mankind of the Universe. There is no denying the fact that it is possible to feel or assess it through the depth of our brain and nothing else i.e. no other means. See into- Encouraging the spirit of discovery and sharing of fundamental knowledge about the Universe and our place in its midst- at http://digg.com/newsbar/topnews/The_Universe_and_our_place_in_its_midst finally see- Digital Universe at http://t.co/nsND5lSm found a-Multimedia DEMO at http://www.twitvid.com/UENCI
Posted by Shahidur Rahman Sikder on May 10,2012 | 03:37 PM
I got to see this when it was being built at Fermilab! Each of those 62 CCDs cost about $50,000 to make. Not all of the CCDs they manufactured were high quality enough to go into the camera, so one of the guys working in the Dark Energy Survey (Juan Estrada) used some of the rejects to build a dark matter detector. It sits underground in the MINOS tunnel :)
Posted by merryjman on April 23,2012 | 10:12 AM