A Royal Astronomical Society Specialist Discussion Meeting organised by *Ofer Lahav (UCL); Manda Banerji (Cambridge)
The meeting will present new results from the Dark Energy Survey (DES), including a new set of cosmology results as well as a number of expected and unexpected astrophysical discoveries. DES is using a wide-field camera on the 4m Blanco Telescope in Chile to image 5000 sq-deg of the sky in five filters. By its completion the survey is expected to have generated a catalogue of 300 million galaxies with photometric redshifts and 100 million stars. In addition, a time-domain survey search over 27 sq-deg is expected to yield a sample of thousands of Type Ia supernovae and other transients.
The main goals of DES are to characterise dark energy and dark matter and to test alternative models of gravity. These goals are being pursued by studying large-scale structure, cluster counts, weak gravitational lensing and Type Ia supernovae. However, DES also provides a rich dataset which allows us to study many other aspects of astrophysics. Highlights from DES early data include the discovery of Solar System objects, dwarf satellites of the Milky Way, high-redshift quasars, super-luminous supernovae and follow-up of gravitational waves. The meeting will summarize the results so far and their impact on planning the next generation of surveys.
Livestream link: http://geolsoc.adobeconnect.com/ras181109/
Admission to Specialist Discussion Meetings is free for RAS Fellows, £15 for non-fellows (£5 for students), cash or cheque only, collected at the registration desk. Admission to the subsequent Open (Monthly A&G) Meeting of the Royal Astronomical Society is open to all, at no charge