The Dark Universe
Over the past decade, astronomers have arrived at the uncomfortable conclusion that 96% of the Universe is made up of two separate as-yet-unexplained phenomena: “Dark Energy” and “Dark Matter”. But what are Dark Energy and Dark Matter? In CAASTRO we are performing a set of innovative measurements to probe the role of Dark Energy over most of cosmic time, and to generate a map of Dark Matter on the largest scales ever performed. We aim to use our observations to test Einstein's theory of gravity in the weak field regime, to test whether Cold Dark Matter behaves as predicted, and to determine whether structure in the Universe is growing as expected for a Universe filled with Dark Energy in the form of a cosmological constant.
Dark Universe Theme Leader – Brian Schmidt (ANU)
Some of the facilities and surveys that CAASTRO is using and conducting include::
SkyMapper, ANU
