{"id":8900,"date":"2021-01-21T11:32:38","date_gmt":"2021-01-21T11:32:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.innovationnewsnetwork.com\/?p=8900"},"modified":"2021-01-22T15:14:23","modified_gmt":"2021-01-22T15:14:23","slug":"exploring-the-universe-with-cosmological-surveys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.innovationnewsnetwork.com\/exploring-the-universe-with-cosmological-surveys\/8900\/","title":{"rendered":"Exploring the Universe with Cosmological surveys"},"content":{"rendered":"
In the last hundred years, cosmology has made significant steps to understand the composition, structure and evolution of the Universe: We have discovered that the Universe is expanding; that it started from a dense and hot state known as the Big Bang; and that it is made of very little ordinary matter and more abundant mysterious components like dark matter and dark energy. The latter is responsible for the accelerated expansion of the Universe. In recent years, many projects are being developed to better understand these components and find an explanation for the acceleration of the Universe. Our group at the Institute of Space Sciences of the Spanish National Research Council<\/a> (ICE-CSIC) and the Institut d\u2019Estudis Espacials de Catalunya<\/a> (IEEC) is actively involved in several of the most ambitious cosmological surveys to explore the Universe.<\/p>\n Galaxies are massive and luminous objects that are distributed throughout the Universe and serve as tracers of space and time. The positions of galaxies map the spatial structure of the cosmos. Moreover, as we observe galaxies as they were in the past, given the finite speed of light, galaxies also trace the evolution of the Universe. The distance between galaxies and the volume of the Universe are both enormous. Therefore, we need very large surveys to sample enough volume and time evolution to be able to characterise the Universe. In these surveys, we need to locate the positions of the galaxy tracers to study their distribution. Imaging surveys can determine the angular position of galaxies precisely and spectroscopy is needed to measure their radial distances accurately. Spectroscopic surveys are more costly than imaging surveys, as you need to disperse the light to measure the galaxy redshifts that determine their distances. Ideally, we would have both types of survey to gather as much information as possible about the position and properties of the galaxies under study.<\/p>\n Imaging surveys can also determine the galaxy redshifts if observations are taken in several bands. We can push this method of determining photometric redshifts, increasing the sampling of the galaxy spectral energy distributions (SEDs), observing with many filters. Our group, in collaboration with other groups at the Institut de F\u00edsica d\u2019Altes Energies<\/a> (IFAE), the Centro de Investigaciones Energ\u00e9ticas, Medioambientales y Tecnol\u00f3gicas<\/a> (CIEMAT), and the Instituto de F\u00edsica Te\u00f3rica<\/a> (IFT) designed and built the Physics of the Accelerating Universe (PAU) Camera. The camera is equipped with 40 narrow band filters and six broad band filters that allow us to finely sample the galaxies SEDs and thus obtain precise and accurate photometric redshifts. It is mounted at the prime focus of the William Herschel Telescope of the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory in the Canary Islands (see Fig. 1). PAUCam is a light-weight camera made mostly of carbon-fibre to reduce the weight load on the prime focus of the telescope. We have been using the camera to conduct the PAU Survey, imaging four fields where there is already deep imaging with PAUCam’s 40 narrow band filters. The performance of the camera is within specifications, delivering photometric redshifts around ten times more precise than those obtained with traditional broad band filters. We are now starting the scientific exploitation of the data enabled by the better sampling of the galaxies SEDs and the unbiased nature of the observation. In addition, we are using our data to help calibrate other larger surveys like the Dark Energy Survey (DES) and the Euclid mission.<\/p>\nMapping the Universe<\/h3>\n
The PAU Camera and Survey: determining distances with images<\/h3>\n