Chile

In the last few decades, Argentina and Chile have proven themselves prime spots for astronomical observation — a status that has been a boon in many ways for both countries.

After scanning in depth about a quarter of the southern skies for six years and cataloguing hundreds of millions of distant galaxies, the Dark Energy Survey will finish taking data on Jan. 9. DES scientists recorded data from more than 300 million distant galaxies. More than 400 scientists from over 25 institutions around the world have been involved in the project, hosted by Fermilab. The collaboration has already produced about 200 academic papers, with more to come.

Experience gained during the construction of prototype detectors paves the way toward the final design of the DUNE detectors.

As the DUNE collaboration grows, collaborators make progress on the two ProtoDUNE detectors at CERN.

The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope will track billions of objects for 10 years, creating unprecedented opportunities for studies of cosmic mysteries.

From Astronomy, Feb. 22, 2018: The supernova, dubbed DES16C2nm, was first detected back in August 2016 by the Dark Energy Survey, which is currently mapping several hundred million galaxies in order to learn more about the mysterious force known as dark energy.

From Newsweek, Feb. 21, 2018: DES162nm was first spotted in August 2016 using the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. The investigations were part of an international collaboration known as the Dark Energy Survey—a project designed to map hundreds of millions of galaxies in a search for the mysterious force that is thought to be behind the accelerating expansion of the universe.

From Daily Mail, Jan. 14, 2018: Preliminary results from the Dark Energy survey have revealed a stunning look at the remains of 11 smaller galaxies that have been devoured by our own, reducing them to stellar streams.

From Sky and Telescope, Jan. 17, 2018: Free, detailed information on 400 million astronomical objects, anybody? Just visit the website of the Dark Energy Survey (DES) – it’s there for the taking.

Local communities named newly discovered stellar streams for bodies of water close to home.