Scientists help create biggest 3D map of the universe and it’s changing what we know about Dark Energy

The map was produced by the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI), an international project involving over 900 researchers from 70 institutions worldwide.

The new findings suggest that dark energy – the mysterious force causing the universe to expand at an increasing rate – may not be constant over time. If confirmed, this would challenge our current understanding of the universe’s evolution and could lead to a major shift in cosmology.

Our key role in DESI

We have been at the heart of the DESI project, making crucial contributions to instrument design, theoretical developments, cosmological simulations and data analysis:

• Our scientists designed and built DESI’s fibre-optic system, which allows light from 5000 objects at a time (distant galaxies, quasars and stars) to be collected with great precision.
• Researchers from Durham, led by Carlos Frenk (a member of the DESI International Board) carried out supercomputer simulations of the universe, helping to compare DESI’s real-world data with theoretical models.
• Dr Willem Elbers co-chairs DESI’s Cosmological Parameter Estimation group, in charge of extracting the fundamental parameters that describe the universe’s evolution from the data.
• Professor Shaun Cole co-chaired the “Bright Galaxy Survey” component of DESI and led studies of galaxies in the nearby universe.
• Former Durham researcher Dr Pauline Zarrouk co-led an analysis that tested Einstein’s theory of gravity on cosmic scales.

Our work has helped confirm that gravity behaves as Einstein predicted, but at the same time, it has revealed possible signs that dark energy is changing, something that was not expected.

What’s next for DESI?

DESI is now in its fourth year of a five-year survey, aiming to map over 50 million galaxies and quasars by the time the project ends.

With each new data release, our researchers will continue to analyse the results and refine our understanding of dark energy and cosmic expansion.

Dr Willem Elbers, a postdoctoral researcher at our Institute for Computational Cosmology, said: “For decades, we have relied on a standard model of the universe, but our new data suggests that dark energy might be evolving over time. If this is true, it will change everything we thought we knew about the cosmos.”

“The standard model has served cosmologists well for over three decades. It has helped us understand the processes behind the formation, distribution and properties of galaxies.

“But the evidence provided by the new data has revealed chinks in the armour of this impressive model and we are now on the verge of replacing it with a better model. This is a beautiful example of how Physics works” said Professor Carlos Frenk from our Institute for Computational Cosmology.

DESI’s first major data release (DR1) is now freely available to scientists worldwide, offering new opportunities for discovery.

Image: DESI maps distant objects to study dark energy. The instrument is installed on the Mayall Telescope, shown here beneath star trails.

Find out more

• Professor Carlos Frenk and Dr Willem Elbers led theoretical developments, computer simulations and analysis of the survey data.
• Read the DESI DR1 paper and DESI’s data release.

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