The Dark Energy Camera, mounted on the Blanco telescope in Chile.{credit}Dark Energy Survey Collaboration.{/credit}

Posted on behalf of Nicky Guttridge.

A dark-energy camera led by Fermilab, based near Batavia, Illinois, and the Dark Energy Survey collaboration has achieved first light, researchers announced yesterday. The 570-megapixel instrument, based in Chile, snapped its first images of galaxies and star clusters on 12 September. It is designed to hunt for signs of dark energy and will survey the skies in a bid to explain why our Universe is expanding at an ever-increasing rate (see ‘Cameras to focus on dark energy‘).

The images posted below are part of the camera’s initial testing, which will continue until December, when the Dark Energy Survey begins. This survey will measure distortions of light owing to gravitational lensing across large expanses of sky. From this, astronomers hope to map the distribution of dark matter throughout the Universe. It is thought that dark energy will leave imprints on this mesh of dark matter, meaning we can work out more about where and what it actually is.

This image focuses on the Fornax cluster, some 60 million light years from Earth. The galaxies in the image seem to cluster together in the upper-right portion of the image, where the centre of the cluster is located. The particularly prominent spiral structure in the lower section is NGC 1365.{credit}Dark Energy Survey Collaboration{/credit}

NGC 1365 is a barred spiral galaxy around 60 million light years from Earth, located in the Fornax galactic cluster. {credit}Dark Energy Survey Collaboration{/credit}

This image, composed of stitched-together sections of sky, shows the globular star cluster 47 Tucanae. It is located approximately 17,000 light years from Earth.{credit}Dark Energy Survey Collaboration{/credit}