DESI by the numbers

DESI, the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument, is a major technical achievement. This video highlights the components and statistics that make DESI unique. The instrument, installed on the Nicholas U. Mayall 4-meter Telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory near Tucson, Arizona, brings high-speed automation to its galaxy-mapping mission. In five years DESI will capture the light from 35 million galaxies and 2.4 million quasars to produce the largest 3D map of the universe.

It is equipped with 5,000 robotic positioners that each point a fiber-optic cable at an object to capture its light, and that are designed to rapidly cycle through sequences of galaxies. These measurements of galaxy colors will ultimately provide precise measurements that will help us better understand the dark energy, which makes up 68 percent of the universe and is causing the quickening acceleration of the universe’s expansion.