* Astronomy

Members Login
Username 
 
Password 
    Remember Me  
Post Info TOPIC: BigBOSS


L

Posts: 131433
Date:
RE: BigBOSS
Permalink  
 


Scientists ready to shed some light on dark energy

A massive survey of distant galaxies should help unravel a mind-bending cosmic mystery: Why has the expansion of the universe sped up?
The goal of the new project, called BigBOSS, is to develop a cosmic yardstick to accurately measure the universe's expansion, which seems to be getting a boost from an anti-gravity force known as dark energy.

Read more

__________________


L

Posts: 131433
Date:
Permalink  
 

BigBOSS Receives Favourable Review from the National Optical Astronomy Observatory

The National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO), the National Science Foundation's (NSF's) research and development center for ground-based astronomy, has announced its conditional approval of the BigBOSS Collaboration's proposal to use 500 nights of valuable observing time on the NOAO 4-metre Mayall Telescope on Kitt Peak, Arizona. The time would be used to build the biggest-ever map of the universe, for investigating the mysterious dark energy that permeates the universe.
Key to the successful inauguration of BigBOSS will be construction of a remarkable new spectrographic instrument capable of making simultaneous measurements of thousands of astronomical objects. The instrument will be available to all users of the Mayall telescope, and the data is expected to be available in an archive for all astronomers and the public. The BigBOSS Collaboration plans to seek funding needed for this instrumentation and associated software from NSF and the U.S. Department of Energy.

Read more

__________________


L

Posts: 131433
Date:
Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey
Permalink  
 


January 10, 2008

Dark energy, the Milky Way galaxy and giant planets: Sloan Digital Sky Survey continues

Building on eight years of extraordinary discoveries by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS and SDSS-II), a new program of four coordinated surveys will revolutionise the study of the distant universe, the Milky Way galaxy, and giant planets orbiting other stars. The largest of these surveys will use a novel and powerful technique to study dark energy, one of the biggest mysteries in contemporary science.
The largest of the four surveys, the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS), will measure the expansion of the universe with unprecedented precision. A decade ago, Eisenstein explains, astronomers made the startling discovery that the expansion of the universe is speeding up.

Source

__________________


L

Posts: 131433
Date:
BigBOSS
Permalink  
 


Title: BigBOSS: The Ground-Based Stage IV Dark Energy Experiment
Authors: David J. Schlegel (1), Chris Bebek (1), Henry Heetderks (1), Shirley Ho (1), Michael Lampton (1), Michael Levi (1), Nick Mostek (1), Nikhil Padmanabhan (1), Saul Perlmutter (1), Natalie Roe (1), Michael Sholl (1), George Smoot (1), Martin White (1), Arjun Dey (2), Tony Abraham (2), Buell Jannuzi (2), Dick Joyce (2), Ming Liang (2), Mike Merrill (2), Knut Olsen (2), Samir Salim (2) ((1) Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, (2) National Optical Astronomy Observatory)
(Version v3)

The BigBOSS experiment is a proposed DOE-NSF Stage IV ground-based dark energy experiment to study baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO) and the growth of structure with an all-sky galaxy redshift survey. The project is designed to unlock the mystery of dark energy using existing ground-based facilities operated by NOAO. A new 4000-fiber R=5000 spectrograph covering a 3-degree diameter field will measure BAO and redshift space distortions in the distribution of galaxies and hydrogen gas spanning redshifts from 0.2<z<3.5. The Dark Energy Task Force figure of merit (DETF FoM) for this experiment is expected to be equal to that of a JDEM mission for BAO with the lower risk and cost typical of a ground-based experiment.
This project will enable an unprecedented multi-object spectroscopic capability for the U.S. community through an existing NOAO facility. The U.S. community would have access directly to this instrument/telescope combination, as well as access to the legacy archives that will be created by the BAO key project.

Read more (759kb, PDF)

__________________


L

Posts: 131433
Date:
Permalink  
 

Dark Energy From the Ground Up: Make Way for BigBOSS
Several ways have been proposed to examine dark energy, in hopes of finding out just what it is. One of them, "supernovae" for short, certainly works: it's how dark energy was discovered in the first place. Other independent techniques, such as weak gravitational lensing and baryon acoustic oscillation, also promise great power but are as yet unproven.
These three techniques all have a share of the proposed Joint Dark Energy Mission (JDEM), a satellite design managed by NASA with the participation of the U.S. Department of Energy. DOE's JDEM Project Office is headquartered at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and led by Michael Levi of the Physics Division.

Read more

__________________
Page 1 of 1  sorted by
Quick Reply

Please log in to post quick replies.



Create your own FREE Forum
Report Abuse
Powered by ActiveBoard