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Home Page of sdss.org, includes introduction to project and current events
What is the Sloan Digital Sky Survey?
Simply put, the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) is the most ambitious
astronomical survey ever undertaken. When completed, it will provide
detailed optical images covering more than a quarter of the sky, and a
3-dimensional map of about a million galaxies and quasars. As the
survey progresses, the data are released to the scientific community
and the general public in annual increments.
The SDSS uses a dedicated, 2.5-meter telescope on Apache Point, NM,
equipped with two powerful special-purpose instruments. The
120-megapixel camera can image 1.5 square degrees of sky at a time,
about eight times the area of the full moon. A pair of spectrographs
fed by optical fibers can measure spectra of (and hence distances to)
more than 600 galaxies and quasars in a single observation. A
custom-designed set of software pipelines keeps pace with the enormous
data flow from the telescope.
The SDSS completed its first phase of operations SDSS-I in June,
2005. Over the course of five years, SDSS-I imaged more than 8,000
square degrees of the sky in five bandpasses, detecting nearly 200
million celestial objects, and it measured spectra of more than
675,000 galaxies, 90,000 quasars, and 185,000 stars. These data have
supported studies ranging from asteroids and nearby stars to the large
scale structure of the Universe.
The SDSS has entered a new phase, SDSS-II, continuing through June,
2008. With a consortium that now includes 25 institutions around the
globe, SDSS-II will carry out three distinct surveys the Sloan
Legacy Survey, SEGUE, and the Sloan Supernova
Survey to address fundamental questions about the nature of the Universe, the origin of
galaxies and quasars, and the formation and evolution of our own
Galaxy, the Milky Way.
Funding for the SDSS and SDSS-II has been provided by the Alfred
P. Sloan Foundation, the Participating Institutions, the National
Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Energy, the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Japanese Monbukagakusho, the
Max Planck Society, and the Higher Education Funding Council for
England.
The SDSS is managed by the Astrophysical Research Consortium for
the Participating Institutions. The Participating Institutions are the
American Museum of Natural History, Astrophysical Institute Potsdam,
University of Basel, Cambridge University, Case Western Reserve
University, University of Chicago, Drexel University, Fermilab, the
Institute for Advanced Study, the Japan Participation Group, Johns
Hopkins University, the Joint Institute for Nuclear Astrophysics, the
Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology, the Korean
Scientist Group, the Chinese Academy of Sciences (LAMOST), Los Alamos
National Laboratory, the Max-Planck-Institute for Astronomy (MPIA), the
Max-Planck-Institute for Astrophysics (MPA), New Mexico State
University, Ohio State University, University of Pittsburgh,
University of Portsmouth, Princeton University, the United States
Naval Observatory, and the University of Washington.
www.sdss.org is a winner of the
Griffith Observatory's Star Award
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