1. January 29, 2003 Science Center 308 3:00 p.m.
Probing the Dark Energy with the SNAP Satellite   Michael Schubnell, University of Michigan
It has now been firmly established  that the universe is expanding at an accelerated rate, driven by a presently unknown form of "dark energy". The  SuperNova / Acceleration Probe (SNAP) has been designed with the primary goal to precisely map out the cosmological expansion history over both the acceleration and the matter dominated deceleration epochs and thereby determine the properties of the dark energy that appear to dominate our universe today. By measuring the equation-of-state of the universe versus redshift, SNAP can distinguish between the various forms of dark energy, e.g. cosmic strings, quintessence or a cosmological constant. SNAP will study thousands of distant supernovae, each with unprecedented precision, using a 2-meter telescope with a wide field, large area optical-to-near-IR imager and spectrograph. In this presentation, I will give an overview of the SNAP science goals and describe design and development status of the SNAP satellite.
January 29, Science Center 308 3:00 p.m.
Sponsored by
and the Department of
Physics and Geology