DESI is a powerful astronomical instrument designed to study the expansion history of the universe and the mysterious force behind it, dark energy. It operates on the Nicholas Mayall 4-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona.
Here's a breakdown of DESI's key features and goals:
- Unveiling the Universe's Map: DESI conducts a massive spectroscopic survey, aiming to collect light data for tens of millions of galaxies and quasars. This data will be used to create a 3D map of the universe, tracing the distribution of matter across billions of light-years.
- Prying into Dark Energy: By analyzing the way galaxies cluster in the universe's large-scale structure, DESI will probe the nature of dark energy. Dark energy is a mysterious force causing the universe's expansion to accelerate. By measuring the expansion history with high precision, DESI aims to shed light on dark energy's properties.
- Technological marvel: DESI boasts a unique design. It uses a focal plane with 5,000 robotic fiber positioners that precisely target galaxies and quasars. These fibers feed light to a bank of spectrographs, which break down the light into its component wavelengths, revealing the objects' physical properties.
DESI's Achievements and Future
- Early Data Release: In June 2023, DESI released its Early Data Release (EDR), containing spectra of nearly two million celestial objects. This data has already yielded exciting discoveries, including the detection of very distant quasars and the confirmation of a large-scale stellar migration event in the Andromeda Galaxy.
- Ongoing Survey: The DESI survey commenced in May 2021 and is expected to continue for five years. During this time, it will map an enormous swath of the sky, gathering data on millions of galaxies and quasars.
Resources for Further Reading
If you'd like to delve deeper into DESI, here are some credible sources:
- The official DESI website at the National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory (NOIRLab): [DESI instrument ON National Optical Astronomy Observatory noirlab.edu]
- A Wikipedia article on DESI: [Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument Wikipedia]
- A news article about DESI's Early Data Release: [Dark Energy Spectroscopy Instrument Releases First Data physics.aps.org]