But for now, Will Percival from the University of Portsmouth, a Dark Energy Survey collaborator, said DECam is an exciting prospect.

BBC: Dark energy camera snaps first images ahead of survey

And the Dark Energy Survey is a big part of Stage III.

FORBES: Dark Energy Camera Could Reshape Einstein Cosmology

We should have a clearer idea when the results from the Dark Energy Survey and its massive 570-megapixel camera are published in five years' time.

BBC: Getting the measure of dark energy

"We need very accurate high resolution images over a very wide field for the Dark Energy Survey" says Dr Peter Doel from UCL's Optical Science Laboratory.

BBC: Getting the measure of dark energy

The point, according to Professor Ofer Lahav, who's the lead investigator for the UK consortium involved in the Dark Energy Survey, is that the nature of all these phenomena is heavily influenced by the properties of dark energy.

BBC: Getting the measure of dark energy

When it's bolted onto the Blanco Telescope at the Cerro Tolodo Observatory in Chile next month the 570-megapixel Dark Energy Camera will survey some 300 million galaxies in the southern sky, measuring the speed at which they are moving apart with phenomenal accuracy, and giving the best description yet of the accelerating expansion of the Universe.

BBC: Getting the measure of dark energy