DESI starts taking data after record-breaking test
IEEC researchers at the Institute of Space Sciences (ICE, CSIC) and at the Institute of Cosmos Sciences of the Universitat de Barcelona (ICCUB) will participate in the analysis of the results.
The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) officially starts today, 17 May 2021, a five-year quest to map the Universe and unravel the mysteries of dark energy. To complete this quest, DESI will gather light from some 30 million galaxies and other distant objects in the Universe, which will allow scientists to construct a 3D map of the Cosmos with unprecedented detail.
DESI is the most ambitious of a new generation of instruments aimed at better understanding the Cosmos – dark energy, in particular. The international collaboration, which has a significant Spanish participation, includes members of the Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia (IEEC – Institut d’Estudis Espacials de Catalunya) at the Institute of Space Sciences (ICE, CSIC) and at the Institute of Cosmos Sciences of the Universitat de Barcelona (ICCUB), who will participate in the analysis of the results.
It was a 10 year effort, starting with the instrument design and leading to this moment, when DESI starts collecting data. These data will help the scientists better understand the repulsive force associated with dark energy that drives the acceleration of the Universe expansion across vast cosmic distances. The formal start of DESI’s five-year survey follows a four-month trial run of its custom instrumentation that captured spectra from four million galaxies – more than the combined output of all previous spectroscopic surveys.
“DESI will let us see an order of magnitude more galaxies than ever before, and study the evolution of the Universe from 11 billion years ago to the present day,” explained Héctor Gil-Marín, IEEC researcher at ICCUB who will co-lead the analysis of the galaxy maps.
Caption: The disk of the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) is targeted by a single DESI pointing, represented by the large, blue, circular overlay. The smaller circles within this overlay represent the regions accessible to each of the 5,000 DESI robotic fiber positioners. In this sample, the 5,000 spectra that were simultaneously collected by DESI include not only stars within the Andromeda Galaxy, but also distant galaxies and quasars. The spectrum that overlays this image corresponds to a distant quasar 11 billion years old.
Credits: DESI collaboration and DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys.
The DESI telescope collects light, i.e. spectra from galaxies and quasars, which gives their recession velocity. “We know that the farther the object, the higher its recession velocity, which allows us to build a 3D map of the Universe,” Gil-Marín added. The detailed distribution of galaxies in the map is expected to yield new insights on the influence and nature of dark energy. Apart from the relative distance and velocity of the objects being observed, the collected light reveals information of their chemical composition.
“The outstanding capability of DESI to collect spectra is also thanks to the instrument software,” said Santiago Serrano, IEEC scientist at ICE who has developed part of the algorithms needed to guide the telescope. He credits scores of people in his group and around the world who have built and tested thousands of DESI’s component parts, most of which are unique to the instrument.
Located at the Kitt Peak National Observatory near Tucson (Arizona, USA), the DESI instrument is an international science collaboration funded by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science and the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center. The instrument includes new optics that increase the field of view of the telescope, as well as 5,000 robotically controlled optical fibers to gather spectroscopic data from an equal number of objects in the telescope’s field of view. On any given night, spectra from some 150,000 objects can be collected.
About DESI
DESI is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science and the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center. Additional support is provided by the U.S. National Science Foundation, the Science and Technologies Facilities Council of the United Kingdom, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the Heising-Simons Foundation, the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), the National Council of Science and Technology of Mexico, the Ministry of Economy of Spain, and by the DESI member institutions. The DESI collaboration is honored to be permitted to conduct astronomical research on Iolkam Du’ag (Kitt Peak), a mountain with particular significance to the Tohono O’odham Nation.
The following centres are part of the DESI collaboration: the Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas, Medioambientales y Tecnológicas (CIEMAT), the Institute of Space Sciences (ICE, CSIC), the Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia (IEEC), the Institut de Física d'Altes Energies (IFAE), the Institute for Theoretical Physics (IFT, UAM-CSIC), the Instituto Astrofísica Andalucía (IAA-CSIC), the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) and the Institute of Cosmos Sciences of the Universitat de Barcelona (ICCUB).
For a more detailed information, visit the DESI collaboration’s website.
Links
– IEEC
– ICE-CSIC
– ICCUB
– DESI
More information
The Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia (IEEC — Institut d’Estudis Espacials de Catalunya) promotes and coordinates space research and technology development in Catalonia for the benefit of society. IEEC fosters collaborations both locally and worldwide and is an efficient agent of knowledge, innovation and technology transfer. As a result of 25 years of high-quality research, done in collaboration with major international organisations, IEEC ranks among the best international research centers, focusing on areas such as: astrophysics, cosmology, planetary science, and Earth Observation. IEEC’s engineering division develops instrumentation for ground- and space-based projects, and has extensive experience in working with private or public organisations from the aerospace and other innovation sectors.
IEEC is a private non-profit foundation, governed by a Board of Trustees composed of Generalitat de Catalunya and four other institutions that each have a research unit, which together constitute the core of IEEC R&D activity: the University of Barcelona (UB) with the research unit ICCUB — Institute of Cosmos Sciences; the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) with the research unit CERES — Center of Space Studies and Research; the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC) with the research unit CTE — Research Group in Space Sciences and Technologies; the Spanish Research Council (CSIC) with the research unit ICE — Institute of Space Sciences. IEEC is a CERCA (Centres de Recerca de Catalunya) center.
Image: PR_MainImage.png
Caption: Small section of the DESI focal plane, showing the one-of-a-kind robotic positioners. The optical fibers, which are installed in the positioners, are backlit with blue light in this image.
Credits: DESI collaboration.
Contacts
IEEC Communication Office
Barcelona, Spain
Ana Montaner and Rosa Rodríguez
E-mail: comunicacio@ieec.cat
Santiago Serrano
Barcelona, Spain
Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia (IEEC)
Institute of Space Sciences (ICE, CSIC)
E-mail: serrano@ieec.cat, serrano@ice.csic.es
Héctor Gil-Marín
Barcelona, Spain
Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia (IEEC)
Institute of Cosmos Sciences of the Universitat de Barcelona (ICCUB)
E-mail: hectorgil@ieec.cat, hectorgil@icc.ub.edu