A Silhouette Hunts for Dark Energy

The silhouette of the Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope appears as just a speck in this panoramic sunset image of Cerro Tololo, home to the U.S. National Science Foundation Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), a Program of NSF NOIRLab. CTIO is a collection of telescopes and instruments located on the Cerro Tololo and Cerro Pachón mountains in Chile. CTIO and the Blanco Telescope are located at an altitude of approximately 2200 meters (7200 feet). 

The Blanco Telescope is used to carry out the Dark Energy Survey (DES), a project supported in part by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science. The goal of DES is to map galaxies, detect supernovae, and find patterns of cosmic structure that will reveal the nature of dark energy, a mysterious influence thought to be driving the accelerated expansion of the Universe. Astronomers believe around 70% of the Universe may exist in the form of dark energy. Blanco searches for it using the Dark Energy Camera (DECam), which has a lens that measures nearly a meter (3.3 feet) across.

The photo was taken from the nearby Cerro Pachón, home to: NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory, jointly funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and the U.S. DOE Office of Science; Gemini South, one half of the International Gemini Observatory, operated by NSF NOIRLab; and the SOAR Telescope.