The Cosmic Evolution Survey (COSMOS) is a

Hubble Space Telescope The Hubble Space Telescope (often referred to as HST or Hubble) is a space telescope that was launched into low Earth orbit in 1990 and remains in operation. It was not the first space telescope, but it is one of the largest and most vers ...

(HST) Treasury Project to survey a two square degree equatorial field with the

Advanced Camera for Surveys The Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) is a third-generation axial instrument aboard the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). The initial design and scientific capabilities of ACS were defined by a team based at Johns Hopkins University. ACS was assembl ...

(ACS). The largest survey ever undertaken by HST, the project incorporates commitments from observatories around the world, such as the

Very Large Array The Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) is a centimeter-wavelength radio astronomy observatory located in central New Mexico on the Plains of San Agustin, between the towns of Magdalena and Datil, ~ west of Socorro. The VLA comprises twent ...

radio observatory, the European Space Agency's

XMM-Newton ''XMM-Newton'', also known as the High Throughput X-ray Spectroscopy Mission and the X-ray Multi-Mirror Mission, is an X-ray space observatory launched by the European Space Agency in December 1999 on an Ariane 5 rocket. It is the second cornerst ...

satellite, and Japan's eight meter Subaru telescope. At the moment, more than 150 astronomers around the world actively contribute to the project. The project's primary goal is to study the relationship between large scale structure (LSS) in the universe and

dark matter Dark matter is a hypothetical form of matter thought to account for approximately 85% of the matter in the universe. Dark matter is called "dark" because it does not appear to interact with the electromagnetic field, which means it does not a ...

, the formation of galaxies, and nuclear activity in galaxies. This includes careful analysis of the dependence of galaxy evolution on environment. The survey covers a field, often known as the ''COSMOS field'', of 2 square degrees of sky in the constellation

Sextans Sextans is a minor equatorial constellation which was introduced in 1687 by Johannes Hevelius. Its name is Latin for the astronomical sextant, an instrument that Hevelius made frequent use of in his observations. Notable features Sextans as ...

. The centre of the field in

j2000 In astronomy, an epoch or reference epoch is a moment in time used as a reference point for some time-varying astronomical quantity. It is useful for the celestial coordinates or orbital elements of a celestial body, as they are subject to ...

coordinates is at Right Ascension 10:00:24 Declination 02:10:55 In 2007 they released the first 3D the dark matter map

Gallery

File:Sample of non-star-forming galaxies from the COSMOS survey.jpg, Sample of non-star-forming galaxies from the COSMOS survey. File:COSMOS field in the constellation of Sextans.jpg, COSMOS field in the constellation of

. File:COSMOS field.jpg, COSMOS survey combines data from ESO’s

Very Large Telescope The Very Large Telescope (VLT) is a telescope facility operated by the European Southern Observatory on Cerro Paranal in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile. It consists of four individual telescopes, each with a primary mirror 8.2 m acro ...

and

ESA , owners = , headquarters = Paris, Île-de-France, France , coordinates = , spaceport = Guiana Space Centre , seal = File:ESA emblem seal.png , seal_size = 130px , image = Views in the Main Control Room (120 ...

’s XMM-Newton X-ray space observatory. File:The Hyperion Proto-Supercluster.jpg, Visualization of the Hyperion proto-supercluster found within COSMOS.

References

Hubble Space Telescope Sextans (constellation) {{astronomy-stub

See also

Gallery

References