Overview
- The DESI Collaboration released final results from its first survey, built from more than 47 million galaxies and quasars plus 20 million nearby stars, about six times prior totals.
- The map spans roughly 11 billion years of cosmic history and provides precise 3D positions that scientists use to track how the universe expands.
- Earlier studies in 2025 using only three years of data hinted that dark energy might evolve, and teams are now analyzing the full dataset to check that result.
- Operating at Kitt Peak in Arizona, DESI uses 5,000 fiber‑optic eyes and ten spectrographs to capture and process about 80 gigabytes of data each night.
- The project plans observations through about 2028 to revisit missed areas after covering roughly two-thirds of the northern sky, including a Bright-Time Survey to measure moonlight effects.