Astronomers have just released images bounced back from an instrument designed to identify dark energy. They show the Milky Way in all its glory. More than 3.3 billion celestial objects can be seen on it. This is probably the largest catalog of this art originally created!
Our Milky Way hides hundreds of billions of objects. Stars, gas and dust clouds, star-forming regions. So many that it quickly seems impossible to create a complete catalogue. However, the Dark Energy Camera Plane Survey (DECaPS2) mission has begun to do just that. Two years of work and 10 terabytes of data collected by the Victor M. Blanco telescope in Chile using the DECam (Dark Energy Camera), a high-resolution instrument used to search for dark energy. The result is an overview of around 3.32 billion celestial objects in the southern sky.
A first data set, DECaPS, was published in 2017. However, when you add these, around 6.5 percent of the sky is insured. Namely on wavelengths of visible light and the near infrared.
© DECaPS2, DOE, FNAL, DECam, CTIO, NOIRLab, NSF, AURA; Image processing: M. Zamani & D. de Martin (NSF’s NOIRLab)-
Here is a photo of the Milky Way as it appears in the sky. The rectangle shows the region surveyed by the Dark Energy Camera Plane Survey (DECaPS2) mission. And the square shows a full-resolution view of a small portion of that data.
Unlocking the mysteries of the Milky Way
Most notably, the near-infrared data allows it to penetrate the dust and plunge into the galactic plane. This region contains most of the objects that make up the Milky Way, but it is difficult to see the star because its light WILL be occluded by clouds and may interfere with that of another star.
© DECaPS2, DOE, FNAL, DECam, CTIO, NOIRLab, NSF, AURA, M. Zamani & D. de Martin (NSF’s NOIRLab)
Zoom in on part of the Milky Way.
To overcome this difficulty, the researchers advance a new technique for image processing. This allows them to predict the background behind each star, mitigating the effects of nebulae and crowded starfields. “Imagine a group photo of three billion people, in which each individual is recognizable,” comments Debra Fischer, department head of astronomical sciences at the National Science Foundation (NSF, USA), in her statement from the NOIRLabto show us the technical feat that has been accomplished here.
The result is a map of the 3D structure of the stars and dust in our Milky Way with unprecedented detail. And analytics for astronomers for life decades… We’ll see if there’s anything wrong with that. here accessible to every man.
Editor: Futura, written by Nathalie Mayer.
Cover image: © DECaPS2, DOE, FNAL, DECam, CTIO, NOIRLab, NSF, AURA; Image editing: M. Zamani & D. de Martin (NSF’s NOIRLab)-Astronomers on the Dark Energy Camera Plane Survey (DECaPS2) mission have released a stunning image of the Milky Way’s galactic plane. A data set containing the impressive figure of 3.32 billion celestial objects.
2. Figure:© DECaPS2, DOE, FNAL, DECam, CTIO, NOIRLab, NSF, AURA; Image processing: M. Zamani & D. de Martin (NSF NOIRLab)
3.Figure: © DECaPS2, DOE, FNAL, DECam, CTIO, NOIRLab, NSF, AURA, M. Zamani & D. de Martin (NSF NOIRLab)
