Professor Carlos Frenk, Ogden Professor of Fundamental Physics at Durham University’s Institute for Computational Cosmology A CUTTING-edge new telescope instrument designed and built by an international team including Durham University has been officially launched. The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) aims to create the most extensive 3D map of the universe to date and reveal the nature of the mysterious dark energy that scientists believe is driving its expansion. DESI will capture and study the light from about 30 million galaxies and other distant objects in the universe. Scientists say this will help them construct a 3D map of the universe with unprecedented detail.