Dark Matter, Dark Energy and Primordial Solar Systems:
The View from a Billion-Pixel Observatory
Gary Bernstein
Department of Astronomy
University of Michigan
Many fundamental questions about the Universe are being answered by
extracting extraordinarily subtle and/or rare signals from astronomical
images. High-redshift supernovae allow us to
measure the time evolution of the enigmatic dark matter and energy
contents of the Universe, but are rare transient events. Subtle
gravitational lensing distortions unveil the structure and evolution
of the dark matter, but require the measurement of 10^7 or more galaxy
images. More locally, a few thousand remnant icy
planetesimals wander beyond Neptune, still carrying the dynamical and
chemical imprint of the early Solar System---but these are very faint moving
targets. I will review the current progress in these fields, which has
been enabled by state-of-the-art astronomical cameras. I will
present plans for future terrestrial and orbiting observatories
equipped with billion-pixel cameras that will greatly increase the
power of these challenging observations.