In depth eyes on the sky

摘要

The ambitions of astronomers for E-ELT are commensurate with the size of the telescope. As we discover more about the universe, we also discover that there are huge gaps in our knowledge: we have found new phenomena, but we have no idea what is causing them. One of the reasons for looking harder at the universe is that we have recently discovered that the universe is not only expanding but, contrary to expectations, that expansion is accelerating. Cosmologists have postulated that some sort of 'dark energy' is responsible for this acceleration but there is no evidence for this.