Photo: Courtesy of DECam
The Dark Energy Survey (DES) will use its newly constructed camera, DECam, to observe a large swath of the southern sky out to vast distances in order to provide new clues about the nature of dark energy or why the universe’s expansion is accelerating. The DECam imager was designed and built at Fermilab over the course of 8 years. On September 12, DECam took its first on-sky images and their quality is indicative of the great success of this project. Later this year, DES will start its 5-year long data taking period, after which our science goals will be achieved. These are exciting times for Dark Energy research!
– Marcelle Santos