Surveying the Universe, 1000 Objects at a Time

Dr. Kyle Dawson
University of Utah
Department of Physics and Astronomy

How does the universe grow and evolve with time? How will the universe look in one billion, ten billion, or 100 billion years from now?  In the last 15 years, we have made startling discoveries about the universe as we have attempted to answer these questions.  With observations of distant supernova explosions, we have learned that the universe is accelerating as it expands and that the universe may be dominated by a completely different form of energy than the matter to which we are accustomed.  As part of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, we are now mapping more than 1.5 million galaxies and 150,000 quasars to better understand these hints from supernova studies.  In this talk, I will describe the measurements of those galaxies and quasars and how we hope to better understand the expanding universe.