Three OU astronomy professors are joining a group of JEDI Knights in an effort to explore the dark side and unveil one of the universe's greatest mysteries.

JEDI, otherwise known as the Joint Efficient Dark-energy Investigation, has become a strong contender in a competition hosted by NASA and the Department of Energy, said Yun Wang, assistant professor of physics and astronomy and creator of JEDI.

She said the competition, referred to as the Joint Dark Energy Mission, has called for scientists to submit mission concept studies that propose ways to efficiently study an unknown entity called dark energy. The team or teams that win the competition will each receive $2 million for further concept study.

Dark energy is thought to be the cause of the accelerated expansion of the universe and is one of the greatest problems in physics and cosmology today, Wang said. She said she has been interested in studying dark energy since it was discovered in 1998.

Wang said she decided to compete in the mission after she read a paper by the Supernova Acceleration Probe, the first group to propose a space mission for studying dark energy. She said the U.S. Department of Energy has been funding SNAP with millions of dollars a year to study the problem, but she was shocked to discover SNAP wasn't doing it in the most efficient way possible.

"My way is a lot better," she said about her JEDI proposal, so she decided to go forward with her research. She said there are now about 30 "knights" from around the country working on JEDI. They communicate over telecoms and refer to Wang as the JEDI master.

Dark energy is studied through the observations of supernovae, explosions of stars "in which their brightness temporarily is as much as a billion suns," said David Branch, professor of physics and astronomy, who is also working on JEDI.

SNAP's proposal would use a space-orbit telescope with a very narrow field of view in its key instrument, a spectrograph, much like the first large optical observatory, the Hubble Space Telescope, Wang said. But the telescope that JEDI is proposing will have a field of view for the spectrograph that is 1,000 times as large as that of the Hubble Space Telescope.

JEDI 'Knights'o Made up of three OU astronomy professorso Competing for $2 million to study dark energyo Proposes a telescope with a field of view for the spectrograph 1000 times larger as that of the Hubble Space Telescopeo Survey will provide data to explore the physics of dark energy

This will allow the observation of many supernovae at once, said Edward Baron, professor of physics and astronomy. Baron, who is also working on JEDI, said his specialty is modeling the spectra of supernovae.

Jerod Parrent, astrophysics senior, said the effect that JEDI will have on the study of dark energy will be great because the survey carried out by JEDI will provide plenty of data for the use of probing the physics of dark energy.

Branch said JEDI is definitely a contender in the competition.

"(Wang) decided to go for it; it's very bold." he said. "And JEDI has really taken off."

"It has been a very pleasant surprise," Wang said. "When I first started proposing the idea of JEDI, we were basically the underdog. But now even our competition recognizes that it's a good idea, and I think they're sweating quite a bit. What it has shown is that nothing beats a good idea."
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