A map like no other
21 Jan 2009 by Evoluted New Media
Astronomers from UK universities are to take on the mammoth challenge of mapping the distribution of stars and black holes from when the Universe was less than a billion years old to the present day.
Astronomers from UK universities are to take on the mammoth challenge of mapping the distribution of stars and black holes from when the Universe was less than a billion years old to the present day.
This dream will be realised by using the Infrared Array Camera on NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope to detect very faint galaxies. The survey is one of the largest awards of observing time on a space-based observatory – a total of 1400 hours.
Dr Seb Oliver at the University of Sussex said: “It is fantastic to see major international astronomical facilities both on the ground and in space working in harmony to tackle the fundamental questions of galaxy formation and evolution.”
The survey, Spitzer Extragalactic Representative Volume Survey (SERVS), will fill a crucial gap in wavelength between the near-infrared and far-infrared, allowing a large volume of Universe to be studied. Studying many massive galaxies, like the Milky Way, will give a true representation of how galaxies formed and evolved across the whole Universe.
Dr Matt Jarvis at the University of Hertfordshire said: “The combination of SERVS and VIDEO will allow us to make the definitive study of how galaxies grow over the history of the Universe. However, the major improvement over past surveys is the combination of depth and area, allowing us to carry out these studies over both the densest and sparsest regions of the Universe. This will enable us to build up a picture of how galaxy formation and evolution is affected by the environment in which the galaxies reside.”
The survey is due to begin in early 2009, which also sees the start of the International Year of Astronomy.
By Leila Sattary
