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Credit & Copyright: Claire Lamman/DESI
collaboration
Text: Cecilia Chirenti (NASA GSFC, UMCP, CRESST II)
Explanation:
This is a map of the universe.
The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI)
at Kitt Peak National Observatory, Arizona,
has finished its five-year
survey.
It observed more than 47 million galaxies and quasars and created a 3D
map centered on the Earth.
Today's featured image
shows a thin slice of these data: the black gaps indicate where our
Galaxy obscures distant objects.
The feathery web in the inset shows the large scale structure
of the universe.
Light of the most distant galaxies shown here travelled for 11
billion years to reach the Earth.
Galaxies cluster throughout cosmic
history under the competing influences of gravity
and dark energy, responsible
for the accelerated
expansion of the universe.
Analysis of early
DESI results hinted at the possibility that dark energy, described as a cosmological
constant by Albert
Einstein, may not be constant after all.
But we still have to wait for the analysis of the now complete dataset.
The nature of dark energy is the biggest mystery
of cosmology.
Text: Cecilia Chirenti (NASA GSFC, UMCP, CRESST II)
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Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day