The DESI telescope, which will make it possible to produce a 3D map with unique precision, began its observations from the United States, the heads of the international project that seeks to better understand the expansion of the universe announced on Monday.
Installed in the Arizona desert, the DESI spectroscopic instrument will point its 5,000 fiber optic “eyes” at the night sky for five years to capture and analyze the light emitted by 35 million galaxies at different times in the universe.
These data should allow scientists to understand the mysterious force called “black energy”, which is responsible for the acceleration of the expansion of the universe, explained in a statement the Berkley Lab, which oversees the program.
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Due to the expansion of the universe, the galaxies are distancing themselves from each other and, the further they move away, the more the light they emit shifts towards the large wavelengths of the observed spectrum, that is, towards the red, explained the Commission of French Atomic Energy (CEA), which participates in the astronomical mission.
By analyzing the energetic radiation of galaxies, DESI will be able to measure the redshift linked to the speed of the distance, and thus have information about their distance from Earth.
The researchers will also be able to create a map of the universe in 3D with “unprecedented detail, by multiplying by ten the number of spectra of identified galaxies,” added the French public body.
DESI is capable of collecting “5,000 galaxy spectra in 20 minutes,” according to Christophe Yeche, a cosmologist at CEA.
With the map of the universe, the researchers hope to better understand the nature and influence of black energy. This invisible component of the cosmos behaves like a repulsive force that would explain why the expansion of the universe has accelerated for thousands of years.
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