scientist have released the first batch of information from a unexampled census of a portion of the night sky called the “ Cosmos Field ” , which incorporate about 100 million stars and galaxies .
The transnational project , called the Hyper Suprime - Cam ( HSC)Subaru Strategic Program , is being take by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan ( NAOJ ) . Images and data point were collected by the Hyper - Suprime - Cam on the Subaru Telescope at the Mauna Kea Observatory in Hawaii .
datum was take over 61.5 night of observation start in 2014 , and lasting for one and a half years . In the next five to six years , the labor will increase this to 300 nights of observations . Using this , scientists go for to hunt for Galax urceolata that have never been seen before , and also look for for dark matter . you’re able to view a scrollable version of the data so farhere .
This spillage includes a rather fantastical composite image of asterisk and galaxy in the Cosmos Field , seen above . Michael Strauss from Princeton University , take in the project , told IFLScience the icon shows just a tiny fraction of all the datum so far , as slight as 100,000th . He reckon there are 1,000 objects in this prototype .
Two other images released show galaxies visualize in the Virgo constellation in our night sky , some of which are up to 5.3 billion light - years forth . Another shows the Tadpole Galaxy , located about 400 million clear - class away , which has a tenacious tail end due to gravitative interaction between two galaxies .
galaxy in the Virgo configuration . NAOJ / HSC Project
The Tadpole Galaxy , UGC 10214 . NAOJ / HSC Project
" Since 2014 , we have been observe the sky with HSC , which can capture a wide - airfield image with eminent answer , " Satoshi Miyazaki , the loss leader of the project and a scientist at NAOJ , said in astatement . " We believe the datum loss will lead to many exciting astronomical solvent , from research the nature of dark subject and dark energy , as well as asteroids in our own Solar System and galaxies in the other universe . ”
The full survey will be done in three footfall . First , a wide of the mark survey of the Nox sky will be done , looking at an area 7,000 time bighearted than the breadth of the full Moon , 1,400 square degrees . Next , a deep survey will count at 26 square academic degree , and then an ultradeep survey will treat just 3.5 square degree .
opening like this help us get a better grasp on the past and present of the universe , and the scientists desire this data release will serve break statistical properties of dark affair , observe merging galaxies , map the outer reach of the Milky Way , and much more .
