Pioneering dark energy instrument achieves its next major milestone

DESI will measure the redshifts of more than 30 million galaxies and quasars with unprecedented precision. And, if approved, the instrument will give new life to Kitt Peak National Observatory’s iconic Mayall telescope.

The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) is an exceptional apparatus designed to improve our understanding of the role of dark energy in the expansion history of the universe; it will do this by measuring the redshifts of more than 30 million galaxies and quasars with unprecedented precision. The U.S. Department of Energy has announced its approval of Critical Decision 2 (CD-2), authorizing the project’s scientific scope, schedule, and funding profile.

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CrazyNeutrino said:

Pioneering dark energy instrument achieves its next major milestone

DESI will measure the redshifts of more than 30 million galaxies and quasars with unprecedented precision. And, if approved, the instrument will give new life to Kitt Peak National Observatory’s iconic Mayall telescope.

The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) is an exceptional apparatus designed to improve our understanding of the role of dark energy in the expansion history of the universe; it will do this by measuring the redshifts of more than 30 million galaxies and quasars with unprecedented precision. The U.S. Department of Energy has announced its approval of Critical Decision 2 (CD-2), authorizing the project’s scientific scope, schedule, and funding profile.

more..

> was completed in the early 1970s and recently recommended for divestment. NSF then made it possible for DOE to mount the DESI spectrometer on the telescope.

Wish we had an NSF.

> “The 4-meter Mayall telescope Mayall telescope is built like a battleship,” said Natalie Roe of Berkeley Lab’s Physics Division. The telescope’s moving weight is 375 tons, and it is “so well engineered it can support this very heavy new instrument” — which weighs five tons — “suspended way up there in the air.”

LMAO.