GREAT10: The GRavitational lEnsing Accuracy Test

About the Challenge

Dark matter and dark energy collectively make up- about 95% of the Universe but are poorly understood. Weak gravitational lensing, a consequence of Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity whereby the  apparent shapes of background galaxies are distorted by the gravitational  effects of foreground dark matter, has emerged as one of the best tools for probing dark matter and dark energy. The subtle shape changes caused 
by weak lensing are difficult to disentangle from the signature imprinted 
on the galaxies by the necessarily imperfect telescopes used to observe 
the galaxies. We seek help from talented computer scientists and 
astronomers in deriving fast and accurate algorithms for deconvolving the 
shapes of galaxies from such instrumental effects. Armed with such 
algorithms, astronomers will, in the coming decade, deploy large 
telescopes on the ground and in space in order to measure the shapes of 
billions of distant galaxies and accurately determine the content, nature, and ultimate fate of the Universe.

For more details on the challenge, rules, data, and to compete, please visit great10challenge.info.