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TheDESurvey @TheDESurvey

In The Dark @TheDESurvey
The #DEScientist of the week is Marisa March! Marisa is a postdoc at the University of Pennsylvania (@pennphys). Le… https://t.co/YA8VTgTc6B

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In The Dark @TheDESurvey
#DESimages (credit: Erin Sheldon) https://t.co/5hJb5VTOec

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In The Dark @TheDESurvey
More from #DESinTexas last week: What were our astronomers working on? Figuring out which clusters are at such hi… https://t.co/EbbfRRo63W

May 22 reply retweet favorite 3 days ago

In The Dark @TheDESurvey
The #DESinTexas meeting is coming to a close, and we learned a lot this week - so we'd like you too as well! Listen… https://t.co/sx9VJUBasN

May 18 reply retweet favorite 7 days ago

In The Dark @TheDESurvey
The #DESinTexas collaboration meeting is coming to a close, and we learned a lot this week - so we'd like you too a… https://t.co/6NMsSZw1xt

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Meet the Portsmouth astronomers mapping out the universe

March 2, 2018 12:00 am

Professor Bob Nichol and Dr David Bacon, from the Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation, have played key roles in the Dark Energy Survey (DES). Kick-started in 2003, the project has united more than 400 scientists from institutions in the United States, the United Kingdom, Brazil, Spain, Germany, Switzerland and Australia. And together, with internationally-sourced government and university funding, this crack team has built and used a 570-megapixel digital camera to carry out a deep probe of 5,000 square degrees – or one eighth – of the southern sky.

Scientists discover 10.5-billion-year-old supernova

February 28, 2018 12:00 am

Scientists working on the Dark Energy Survey (DES), an international project mapping a few hundred million distant galaxies to learn more about dark energy, discovered the most distant supernova ever detected. Designated DES16C2nm, the supernova took place 10.5 billion years ago when a massive star exploded at the end of its life. It is classed as a superluminous supernova (SLSN), the brightest and most rare of all supernovae. "Such supernovae were not thought of when we started DES over a decade ago," explained Bob Nichol, Director of the Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation at the University of Portsmouth in the UK. "Such discoveries show the importance of empirical science; sometimes, you just have to go out and look up to find something amazing." Mathew Smith of the University of Southampton, also in the UK, and lead author of a paper on the findings published in the Astrophysical Journal, noted the rare finding gives astronomers better understanding of the rare superluminous supernovae.

Oldest supernova EVER DETECTED found by UK scientists in GROUNDBREAKING discovery

February 20, 2018 12:00 am

The colossal cosmic blast happened only 3.3billion years after the Big Bang, when the universe was a quarter of its current age, and light from the supernova has taken 10.5billion years to reach Earth - the Universe itself is thought to be 13.8billion years old. The supernova, named DES16C2nm, was identified by a team led by Southampton University for the Dark Energy Survey (DES) - an international collaboration mapping far-off galaxies. The team confirmed it is a superluminous supernova (SLSN) which is the brightest and rarest class and up to 100 times brighter than other types of stellar blasts. Lead author Dr Mathew Smith said: "DES16C2nm is extremely distant, extremely bright and extremely rare - not the sort of thing you stumble across every day as an astronomer. "It's thrilling to be part of the survey that has discovered the oldest known supernova. "As well as being a very exciting discovery in its own right the extreme distance of DES16C2nm gives us a unique insight into the nature of SLSN."

Astronomers discover the oldest supernova which took place 10.5 billion years ago

February 20, 2018 12:00 am

An international team of astronomers has discovered the oldest supernova ever detected — a huge cosmic explosion that took place 10.5 billion years ago. A supernova is the explosion of a massive star at the end of its life cycle. The exploding star, named DES16C2nm, was detected by the Dark Energy Survey (DES), an international collaboration to map several hundred million galaxies in order to find out more about dark energy — the mysterious force believed to be causing the accelerated expansion of the universe. As detailed in a new study published in The Astrophysical Journal, light from the event has taken 10.5 billion years to reach Earth, making it the oldest supernova ever discovered and studied.

Astronomers Reveal Secrets of Most Distant Supernova Ever Detected

February 20, 2018 12:00 am

As detailed in a new study published in The Astrophysical Journal, light from the event has taken 10.5 billion years to reach Earth, making it the oldest supernova ever discovered and studied. The universe itself is thought to be 13.8 billion years old. The research was led by Mathew Smith of the University of Southampton in collaboration with Chris D’Andrea, a postdoctoral fellow at Penn, and Masao Sako, an associate professor in Penn’s School of Arts and Sciences. Researchers at the University of Portsmouth also contributed to the research. A supernova is the explosion of a massive star at the end of its life cycle. DES16C2nm is classified as a superluminous supernova, or SLSN, the brightest and rarest class of supernovae, first discovered 10 years ago. It is thought to be caused by material falling onto the densest object in the universe, a rapidly rotating neutron star newly formed in the explosion of a massive star. This violent explosion, Sako said, is brighter than even the brightest galaxies.