Dark Energy Survey releases Year 6 results

The new findings provide the tightest constraints yet on the universe's expansion and represent the culmination of 25 years of scientific research.

Published on Feb. 13, 2026

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After 25 years of planning, six years of data collection, and six more years of analysis, scientists have published a portion of the final results of the Dark Energy Survey (DES) — the largest, most comprehensive survey of its kind — yielding the tightest constraints to date on models of our universe's expansion. The survey combined observations from four different probes to gather the most comprehensive data to date on how the cosmos has expanded over time, aligning most closely with the Lambda Cold Dark Matter (ΛCDM) model of cosmology.

Why it matters

The Dark Energy Survey is the largest survey in history to study the effects of dark energy, the mysterious force driving the accelerating expansion of the universe. The new results represent a major milestone in our understanding of dark energy and cosmology, providing the tightest constraints yet on the parameters that describe the universe's evolution.

The details

The DES Collaboration used the National Science Foundation's Victor M. Blanco 4-meter telescope in Chile to observe 669 million galaxies across one-eighth of the sky over 758 nights from 2013 to 2019. The new paper presents the first full analysis of all six years of data from two of the four probes — weak lensing and galaxy clustering — along with the first results from the combined analysis of all four probes. The results align most closely with the ΛCDM model, but also show a slight discrepancy in the clumpiness of matter in the universe compared to predictions.

  • The Dark Energy Survey was first imagined 25 years ago.
  • The survey collected data from 2013 to 2019.
  • The new Year 6 results were published in 2026.

The players

Dark Energy Survey (DES)

An international collaboration of over 400 scientists studying the effects of dark energy, the mysterious force driving the accelerating expansion of the universe.

Victor M. Blanco 4-meter telescope

The National Science Foundation telescope located in Chile that the DES used to observe 669 million galaxies over the course of the survey.

Masaya Yamamoto

A postdoctoral researcher at Princeton University and member of the DES shear measurement/calibration analysis team.

Jessie Muir

A physics professor at the University of Cincinnati and a member of the DES team.

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What they’re saying

“This is the … final legacy analysis from DES using all the data from contributions from over 400 people. … We have fulfilled its promise from 20 years ago, and the result is something history should remember.”

— Masaya Yamamoto, postdoctoral researcher at Princeton and member of the DES shear measurement/calibration analysis team

“It's completely possible that one probe can say something different about our universe compared to other probes. The fact that everything is consistent together is amazing.”

— Masaya Yamamoto, postdoctoral researcher at Princeton and member of the DES shear measurement/calibration analysis team

“We can test for what values of parameters produce theory predictions that agree the best with our measurements, and how much those values can change before predictions disagree significantly with the observables. In other words, we're constraining what parameter values plausibly describe the real universe.”

— Jessie Muir, physics professor at the University of Cincinnati and DES team member

What’s next

The insights gained from the DES analysis can now be applied to future surveys taken with the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, the Euclid space telescope, and the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, which will significantly increase the statistical precision of measurements and allow for even more sensitive tests of dark energy models.

The takeaway

The Dark Energy Survey has provided the tightest constraints yet on the parameters that describe the expansion of our universe, representing a major milestone in our understanding of dark energy and cosmology. The survey's legacy extends beyond the data, as it has also trained a new generation of scientists who will continue to push the boundaries of our knowledge about the universe.