The Dark Energy Survey (DES) is a survey that aims to probe the dynamics of the expansion of the universe and the growth of large scale structure. The collaboration is composed of research institutes and universities from United States, Brazil, United Kingdom (UK), Germany and Spain. The survey will use the 4-meter Victor M. Blanco Telescope located at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO) in Chile, and the main innovation of that project consists in the development of a new camera which is commonly called DECam. This camera will allow astronomers to take more sensitive images in the red part of the visible spectrum and in the near infrared, in comparison to current equipment installed at Victor M. Blanco Telescope. In addition, DECam has one of the widest field of view available for ground-based optical and infrared images. According to the official website, its field is so large that a single image will record data from an area of the sky 20 times the size of the moon as seen from the earth. The survey will image 5000 degrees of the southern sky and will take five years to complete.
Read more about The Dark Energy Survey: Overview, DECam, Survey, Galaxy Cluster Counts, Weak Lensing, Data Management
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