Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory | 2018 Jan 10
Also announces discovery of eleven stellar streams, evidence of small galaxies being eaten by the Milky Way
[img3="This image shows the full area of sky mapped by the Dark Energy Survey and the 11 newly discovered stellar streams. Four of the streams in this diagram — ATLAS, Molonglo, Phoenix and Tucana III — were previously known. The others were discovered using the Dark Energy Camera, one of the most powerful astronomical cameras on Earth. Credit: Dark Energy Survey"]http://news.fnal.gov/wp-content/uploads ... led-V2.jpg[/img3][hr][/hr]At a special session held during the American Astronomical Society meeting in Washington, D.C., scientists on the Dark Energy Survey (DES) announced today the public release of their first three years of data. This first major release of data from the Survey includes information on about 400 million astronomical objects, including distant galaxies billions of light-years away as well as stars in our own galaxy.
DES scientists are using this data to learn more about dark energy, the mysterious force believed to be accelerating the expansion of the universe, and presented some of their preliminary cosmological findings in the special session. As part of that session, DES scientists also announced today the discovery of 11 new stellar streams, remnants of smaller galaxies torn apart and devoured by our Milky Way.
The public release of the first three years of DES data fulfills a commitment scientists on the survey made to share their findings with the astronomy community and the public. The data cover the full DES footprint – about 5,000 square degrees, or one eighth of the entire sky — and include roughly 40,000 exposures taken with the Dark Energy Camera. The images correspond to hundreds of terabytes of data and are being released along with catalogs of hundreds of millions of galaxies and stars. ...
New Stellar Streams Confirm ‘Melting Pot’ History of the Galaxy
National Optical Astronomy Observatory | 2018 Jan 10
The Dark Energy Survey Data Release 1 - DES Collaboration, NOAO Data Lab
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