Free Astronomy Magazine September-October 2021

44 ASTRO PUBLISHING The most precise look at the Universe’s evolution by NOIRLab - Amanda Kocz T en areas in the sky were selected as “deep fields” that the Dark En- ergy Camera imaged several times during the survey, providing a glimpse of distant galaxies and help- ing determine their 3D distribution in the cosmos. The image is teeming with galaxies — in fact, nearly every single object in this image is a galaxy. Some exceptions include a couple of dozen asteroids as well as a few handfuls of foreground stars in our own Milky Way. [Dark Energy Survey/DOE/FNAL/DECam/CTIO/NOIR- Lab/NSF/AURA. Ack.: T.A. Rector (Uni- versity of Alaska Anchorage/NSF’s NOIRLab), M. Zamani (NSF’s NOIR- Lab) & D. de Martin (NSF’s NOIRLab)] N ew results from the Dark En- ergy Survey (DES) use the largest-ever sample of galax- ies observed over nearly one-eighth of the sky to produce the most pre- cise measurements to date of the Universe’s composition and growth. DES images the night sky using the 570-megapixel Dark Energy Camera on the National Science Founda- tion’s Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Tele- scope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO) in Chile, a Pro- gram of NSF’s NOIRLab. One of the most powerful digital cameras in the world, the Dark Energy Camera was