Artist's concept of ADEPT spacecraft.

ADEPT, the Advanced Dark Energy Physics Telescope, is led by Charles Bennett of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. If launched, ADEPT will use a 1.1-meter near-infrared telescope to locate 100 million galaxies and 1,000 Type Ia supernovae.

One mission goal is to take the most comprehensive survey ever of how galaxies are distributed over very large volumes of space. The distribution pattern can then be compared to tiny temperature fluctuations seen in the cosmic microwave background. Acoustic waves rambling through the early universe created these fluctuations, which correlate to regions that had slightly higher and lower densities. These regions later influenced how matter clumped together due to gravity to form clusters of galaxies. By comparing how matter was clumped in the early universe to how it has clumped in more recent times, scientists can discern the role played by dark energy in shaping cosmic evolution.