The 365 Days Of Astronomy, The Daily Podcast Of The International Year Of Astronomy 2009

Observations using the Dark Energy Camera (DECam) confirm astronomers’ expectation that early-Universe quasars formed in regions of space densely populated with companion galaxies. DECam’s exceptionally wide field of view and special filters played a crucial role in reaching this conclusion, and the observations reveal why previous studies seeking to characterize the density of early-Universe quasar neighborhoods have yielded conflicting results. In this podcast, Dr. Trysten Lambert discusses how DECam enabled astronomers to reach this conclusion.   Bios: Rob Sparks is in the Communications, Education and Engagement group at NSF’s NOIRLab in Tucson, Arizona.   Dr. Trystan Lambert’s research career has focused exclusively on extragalactic observational astronomy, exploring both low and high redshift regimes. During his M.Sc. at the University of Cape Town in South Africa, he contributed to the completion of the 2MASS Redshift Survey and developed the galaxy group catalog. He then moved to Chile, where he pursu