Investigating the neighbourhood of galaxies

Our Universe is expanding, and this goes even faster with time. But the cause of that - the mysterious Dark Energy - is still unknown.
 

To understand these fundamental processes better, is it important to know the distribution of matter in the universe. 
An international team, including CRC members Hendrik Hildebrandt and Anna Wittje is carrying out the „Physics of the Accelerating Universe“ Survey (PAU Survey). This survey aims to map the distance and surrounding of 1.8 million galaxies.
The picture shows roughly half of the sample, with the distance colour-coded - revealing nicely the large-scale structures of the Universe.
 These data will help to constrain galaxy parameters which are essential for solving the Dark Energy puzzle.

The full RUB press release can be found here (in German).