The groundbreaking Dark Energy Camera (DECam) entered service in 2012 and served as the primary camera used for the Dark Energy Survey. The 570-megapixel camera, which features 74 total CCD image sensors, recently captured a dazzling photo of the Antlia Cluster (Abell S636), a group of at least 230 galaxies located about 130 million light-years from Earth.
Located inside the Victor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile, the Dark Energy Camera is a wide-field CCD imager with 62 science CCDs and a dozen CCDs that control guidance and focus. The 62 science CCDs deliver 520 total megapixels of resolution, while the additional sensors are 50 megapixels. Including the sensors, lenses, and filter array, the entire DECam apparatus weighs about four tons, or to borrow from Chris Niccolls, about 1,814 Nocts.
After a lengthy calibration period, the Dark Energy Survey’s observation period lasted from August 2013 until January 9, 2019. Since then, scientists have continued working through all the data the Dark Energy Camera captured. The DECam has also been used for other surveys, including the Dark Energy Camera Legacy Survey, the DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys, and the Dark Energy Camera Plane Survey.
The new image of the Antlia Cluster shows a diverse group of galaxy types, including lenticular galaxies, irregular galaxies, and even ultra-compact dwarf galaxies, per NOIRLab. The full-resolution version is available to download from NOIRLab.
Given that the Dark Energy Survey observation period covered 5,000 square degrees of the southern night sky, it is no surprise that scientists are still working through the data and learning new things about the cosmos. The Dark Energy Camera captured over one million exposures, and a single image covers an area of the sky that is about 20 times the average visible size of the Moon as seen from Earth. That’s a lot of data.
Image credits: Dark Energy Survey/DOE/FNAL/DECam/CTIO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA
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