This cartoon is part of the DES Y3 #Darkbites social media series. It was drawn to illustrate a paper led by Martin Rodriguez-Monroy, which describes DES Year 3 galaxy clustering measurements and the technique used to correct them for observational systematics. The paper’s title is, “Dark Energy Survey Year 3 Results: Galaxy clustering and systematics treatment for lens galaxy samples” (arXiv:2105.13540).

alt="Cartoon telescope looking at cosmological structures through glass plates. The glass plates have clouds, satellites, asteroids, and stars painted on them. Animation shows the panes of glass appearing one by one."

The post’s associated text was:

The way galaxies cluster together tells us about how structures in the Universe form and evolve, but to see them we have to look through Earth’s atmosphere and the stars in our own galaxy. We have to correct for contaminations before we can learn about distant galaxies.

Here’s a link to the post. The twitter thread of the Y3 Darkbites posts begins here. The cartoons also being shared on the DES facebook and instagram pages.

Here’s a non-animated version of the illustration: alt="Cartoon telescope looking at cosmological structures through glass plates. The glass plates have clouds, satellites, asteroids, and stars painted on them."

I can provide higher res versions of the gif animation frames upon request.