DECam

The Dark Energy Camera, or DECam, is a powerful digital astronomical instrument designed to conduct surveys of the sky. It is mounted on the Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. DECam was commissioned in 2012 and has since been instrumental in various large-scale astronomical projects.

The camera boasts a very wide field of view, spanning approximately 3.1 square degrees. This wide view allows it to capture vast swathes of the sky in a single exposure, making it highly efficient for survey work. DECam is equipped with 62 2048x4096 pixel CCDs, resulting in a total of 570 megapixels of imaging data. Its primary scientific goal is to study dark energy, a mysterious force believed to be responsible for the accelerating expansion of the universe.

Beyond dark energy research, DECam has also been used for a multitude of other astronomical investigations. These include mapping the distribution of galaxies, searching for faint and distant objects, studying the Milky Way's structure, and characterizing exoplanets. Its sensitivity and wide field of view make it a versatile tool for many areas of modern astronomy. DECam's data is publicly available to astronomers worldwide, fostering collaborative research and accelerating scientific discovery.