Events Calendar
Mapping the Cosmos with DESI: Targeting and First Spectra
Friday April 10, 2020
3:30 pm
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Presenter: | Adam Myers, Associate Professor, University of Wyoming |
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Series: | Physics and Astronomy Colloquium | |
Abstract: | The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) is a fiber-fed robotic multi-object spectrograph on the Mayall 4-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory. DESI can obtain spectra of ~5000 objects over a ~3 degree field in a single exposure, which will enable a five-year spectroscopic survey of over a third of the sky. DESI dark- and gray-time observations will obtain redshifts for ~30 million galaxies and quasars, allowing new constraints on the expansion history of the Universe over a large dynamic range of cosmic time. During bright-time, DESI will observe an additional ~20M nearby galaxies and stars. The main DESI survey is about to commence, and I will outline the properties of the galaxies, quasars and stars that DESI will target, and display some of the first science spectra from DESI's Survey Validation phase. I will also discuss the results expected from DESI, with a focus on how the Baryon Acoustic Oscillation (BAO) method can be used to constrain the evolution of the distance-redshift relation. | |
Host: | Darcy Barron | |
Location: | TBD | |