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"In December I went observing at the Anglo-Australian Telescope to follow-up DES Supernova observations. We confirm… https://t.co/cSkYJDAPb9

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The #DEScientist of the Week is Erika Wagoner! Erika is a graduate student at the University of Arizona who enjoys outreach work and Harry Potter. Read more about her work and interests here:
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Erika Wagoner - The Dark Energy Survey

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Erika is a graduate student at the University of Arizona. She is working on a project … Read more »

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The Dark Energy Survey

1 week ago

In December I went observing at the Anglo-Australian Telescope to follow-up DES Supernova observations. We recently published the confirmation of 18 new DES Supernovae, including one super-luminous supernova - some of the brightest and strangest objects in the Universe! #DEST4TD

www.astronomerstelegram.org/?read=11679

Thanks to Elizabeth Swann (University of Portsmouth) for today's DES thought for the day!

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2 weeks ago

The #DEScientist of the Week is Jessie Muir! Jesse is a graduate student at the University of Michigan studying cosmology theory and analysis. Read more about her here:
www.darkenergysurvey.org/scientistoftheweek/jessie-muir/

And check out a video of Jessie discussing what would happen if the Sun exploded: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uy53XRVTQBU ... See MoreSee Less

Jessie Muir - The Dark Energy Survey

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Jessie is a graduate student at the University of Michigan. She works on theory and analysis for DES. In … Read more »

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News

The dark-energy deniers

June 19, 2018 12:00 am

Make no mistake, dark energy – be it the cosmological constant or quintessence – is the leading theory with plenty of observational evidence to support it. The alternatives remain highly controversial. Yet those nagging questions just won’t go away. Upcoming surveys will either solidify dark energy theory’s position further, or produce a surprise by pulling the rug out from under it. With the Dark Energy Survey – an international collaboration using a 570-million-pixel camera called DECam on the Blanco 4 m telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile – releasing its first data from a survey of 300 million galaxies, these are exciting times. “What makes this a really fun field to be in is that I don’t know what the next big step will be,” concludes Riess. “We’re just in the middle of our initial reconnaissance, and I don’t think we should be surprised by surprises.”

Simon Samuroff receives URA Thesis Award for Dark Energy Survey image analysis

June 1, 2018 12:00 am

The Dark Energy Survey captures images of galaxies billions of light-years away to help our understanding of the evolution of the cosmos. Assessing these galaxies’ properties, such as their size, shape and distance from each other, is a painstaking process, one that involves not only collecting massive amounts of data, but also correcting for potential miscues that challenge the very act of assessing the data. The Fermilab-led Dark Energy Survey aims to make unprecedented measurements of a phenomenon known as gravitational lensing. Gravity bends light produced by faraway galaxies, so images of galaxies are subtly distorted by the time they reach Earth. The degree of distortion itself can provide information about those galaxies, galaxy clusters and the universe around them. An important step in making accurate measurements of the universe is by successfully isolating these tiny distortions. Simon Samuroff is the recipient of the 2017 URA Thesis Award, presented annually for outstanding work by a graduate student working at or in collaboration with Fermilab. In his thesis, titled “Systematic Biases in Weak Lensing Cosmology with the Dark Energy Survey,” Samuroff built computer simulations to model the shapes of galaxies captured by the Dark Energy Camera, which was built by Fermilab and is located at an observatory on a Chilean mountaintop. He closely compared thousands of the simulations to actual images to determine the amount by which scientists’ initial estimates of these distortions are incorrect. He singled out miscues so the Dark Energy Camera could make improved measurements and be more sensitive to subtle effects of phenomena such as dark matter. “The committee was impressed by both the quality of writing and the magnitude of his study — cataloging millions of galaxies or clusters and taking very small effects into account,” said Fermilab scientist Lenny Spiegel, chair of the URA Thesis Award Committee. “His work is invaluable to scientists studying mysteries regarding astrophysics, which may ultimately point the direction for future progress in particle physics.” One of Samuroff’s major results showed that interactions between the images of neighboring galaxies that overlapped affected scientists’ measurements more severely than they realized. By identifying where and to what degree distortions like this cause inaccuracies, Samuroff helps scientists create a more reliable system of measurement.

KBO could be evidence for a giant planet in the outer solar system

May 31, 2018 12:00 am

The discovery of a distant Kuiper Belt Object (KBO) with an extremely eccentric orbit could be evidence that a giant planet is waiting to be discovered in the outer solar system. KBO BP519 was discovered by scientists analyzing data collected by the Dark Energy Survey, which observes a region far above the orbital plane of most of the solar system’s planets as part of a project to measure acceleration of the universe’s expansion. It orbits the Sun at a tilt of some 54 degrees from the plane of the inner solar system planets’ orbits. Like several other KBOs found in 2016, which all orbit at the same unique angle to the plane of the inner planets, 2015 BP519’s position suggests it is being influenced by the gravitational pull of a much larger object, sometimes referred to as “Planet X” or “Planet Nine,” which may be shepherding it and the other above KBOs into this strange orbit. Since the 2016 discovery of these KBOs orbiting at the same distinct angle, scientists have been searching for a hypothesized large planet influencing their orbits, which could be either a super-Earth or a gas giant. One possibility is 2015 BP519, described as “the most extreme Trans-Neptunian Object discovered to date,” is actually a moon of the large planet, which some astronomers estimate to be ten times as massive as the Earth.

‘Nova Wonders’ Asks ‘What’s the Universe Made Of’ Tonight

May 30, 2018 12:00 am

When gravitational-wave detectors recorded a distant collision of two neutron stars, astronomers around the world got the call and began to search for visible evidence of the crash. A team in Chile from the Dark Energy Survey — as well as other groups — was able to detect the so-called kilonova's light, providing the first-ever observations of both light and gravitational waves from the same cosmic explosion. For the Dark Energy Survey crew, these observations will help gauge the universe's expansion rate, aiding their investigation into the mysterious dark energy pushing the universe apart. "What's the Universe Made Of" digs deep into two cosmic mysteries — dark matter and dark energy — showing how researchers know those entities exist, but also revealing that they are still trying to learn what they're made of and how they work.

Planet Nine: New evidence strong but not proof

May 28, 2018 12:00 am

It has been described as hiding in plain sight, a planet 10 times as massive as Earth and orbiting the Sun beyond Neptune. Predicted in a series of studies over the last few years, Planet Nine of the solar system — if it exists — continues to elude, and yet intrigue, with clues suggesting that it is indeed out there. The latest pointer comes from another object in the outer Solar System, called 2015 BP519. This one is certain: it was discovered during the international project Dark Energy Survey. In a paper on a preprint archive reporting the discovery, a large team of scientists has concluded that 2015 BP519 “adds to the circumstantial evidence for the existence of this proposed new member of the Solar System”.

© 2018 The Dark Energy Survey