First results from the CFHTLS

The CFHTLS is a major undertaking from Canada and France, who have joined a significant fraction (about 50%) of their dark and grey telescope time for a large survey using the wide field imager MegaPrime equipped with MegaCam. MegaCam is a mosaic of 36 CCDs, covering a 1 degree x 1 degree field of view. With a PI-less structure and a data access policy granting equal and immediate access to any member of the two communities to both processed images and catalogs, the CFHTLS is both exciting and challenging. The CFHTLS is made of 3 separate surveys, one of which is a deep synoptic survey, the "Deep".

A subset of this Deep survey is used by the SuperNova Legacy Survey collaboration (SNLS) to measure the distance to far supernovae and the equation of state of Dark Energy. The first results of the SNLS survey, to be published in Astronomy & Astrophysics, place strong constraints on cosmological models. Read the full AAS Press Release.

See also the full Astronomy & Astrophysics Press Release

The CNRS in France has also issued a Press Release (in French)

This supernova is as bright as 100 billion Sun-like stars. It exploded 3 billion years ago. At the maximum of its brightness, it was 25 000 times less bright than the blue star seen in the middle of the image. This central blue star is 100 times less bright than the faintest star visible with the naked eye. Copyright CFHTLS/SNLS/Terapix.