Items tagged with Dark Energy

by Kory Kessel - Thu, Jun 04, 2015

$500 Million Giant Magellan Telescope Approved For Assembly

The consortium governing the planning and construction of the Giant Magellan Telescope — which will be the worlds largest optical telescope when completed — has approved its $500 million assembly phase, which is roughly half of the project's $1 billion overall budget. The massive celestial-gazing instrument and its support facility will be built in Chile, on the Las Campanas Peak in the Andes mountain range. A seven-mirror telescope spanning 25.5 meters, or nearly 84 feet, the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT) will focus six times the amount of light that is harnessed by the biggest optical telescopes in operation today. As described on the project website, the GMT will have “six off-axis 8.4 meter... Read more...

by Paul Lilly - Tue, Feb 03, 2015

Insanely Rugged Mobile Battery Pack Survives Shotgun Blast, Stirs Up Interest On Kickstarter

It never hurts to bring along a portable charger when you're out hiking, camping, or otherwise seeking fun and adventure. The more adventurous you are, the more rugged your gear should be, and Dark Energy's Poseidon mobile battery pack is about as tough as it gets. How tough? Well, it can withstand a shotgun blast from 35 feet away. We don't recommend putting yourself in situations where shotguns might be aimed in your direction, but that's not the point here. Dark Energy posted a video of its Poseidon surviving a shotgun blast to demonstrate on Kickstarter just how tough this compact charger is. They're billing it as the first military grade and waterproof mobile battery. It has the maximum... Read more...

by Joshua Gulick - Thu, Oct 18, 2012

Scientists Using 570 Megapixel Camera to Take Glamor Shots of Dark Energy

Scientists have been puzzling over cosmic acceleration – the ever-faster expansion of the universe – for decades. Now, they have a new tool that may help them solve the mystery: a 570MP camera that is being used by the Dark Energy Survey (DES) group to snap images of galaxies that are millions and even billions of light years from Earth. This is replica hardware at Fermilab that was designed to help scientists mount the camera to the Blanco telescope. Image credit: Fermilab. Although the Dark Energy Camera (DECam) was built at Fermilab, it’s not there anymore. The team determined that the best place for the camera to get shots of far-off galaxies is Chile. The camera... Read more...