Physics (Internal)
Boston University work on DESI project featured in press release.
February 12, 2018
Work done by the Ahlen group and the Scientific Instrument Facility (SIF) at BU have been featured in a press release by the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument or DESI project. The SIF at BU and the Ahlen group, which consists of Professor Steve Ahlen and grad student Yutong Duan, and have contributed to the production of a large number of components for DESI.
The DESI will be installed and run from Kitt Peak National Observatory. The project aims to provide new insights about the universe’s expansion and large-scale structure. In addition, it aims to help set limits on theories related to gravity and the formative stages of the universe, and could even provide new mass measurements for a variety of elusive yet abundant subatomic particles called neutrinos.
The project will use an array of 5,000 swiveling robots, each carefully choreographed to point a fiber-optic cable at a preprogrammed sequence of deep-space objects, including millions of galaxies and quasars, which are galaxies that harbor actively feeding, massive black holes. It aims to scan one-third of the sky and will capture about 10 times more data than predecessor surveys.