SDSS

Scientists have proposed new instruments that would use spectroscopy to decode dark matter, dark energy and cosmic inflation.

Combining the newest of astronomical instruments with the most venerable techniques of patient attention to detail, scientists at the Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, the University of Chicago and other institutions believe they have made the first optical observation of a gamma ray burst afterglow unprompted by prior observation of the gamma ray burst itself-a so-called “orphan afterglow.”