Events in Physics
Bob Nichol, Portsmouth
Location: PLT
In this talk, I will review the evidence for dark energy - a mysterious substance that makes up 70% of the energy density of the universe. I will discuss a new survey of the southern sky designed to study this dark energy in much greater detail, called the Dark Energy Survey (DES). The DES collaboration has built one of the most advanced digital camera for this study and has been collecting data since 2013. I will present first results from DES including the detection of new "Superluminous Supernovae" and first maps of dark matter on large scales. Beyond DES, there are many experiences designed to further our understanding of the dark universe. I will quickly review them at the end of the talk.