Data on 400 million astronomical objects released

Scientists on the Dark Energy Survey (DES), which includes UCL researchers, announce their first three years of data including information on about 400 million astronomical objects such as 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. They presented some of their preliminary cosmological findings in a special session held during the American Astronomical Society meeting in Washington, D.C. which includes the discovery of eleven new stellar streams, remnants of smaller galaxies torn apart and devoured by our Milky Way. UCL has played key roles in both science and instrumentation of DES for over a decade with funding from the Science and Technology Facilities Council. Professor Ofer Lahav (UCL Physics & Astronomy), who chairs both the DES Advisory Board and the DES:UK consortium of seven universities, and co-directs UCL's CDT in Data Intensive Science, said: "This data release is a milestone in this major galaxy survey. The best Cosmology and non-Cosmology results from DES are still to come from this and the final big data sets. This a great example of data intensive science." 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.