Last year in August, the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) was given the charge of managing the construction of Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) observatory by the National Science Foundation (NSF). The key component of LSST is the 3,200 MP digital camera, approximately the size of a small car weighing more than 3 tons. The LSST team received construction funding from the NSF in August. But, now it has received the much awaited ‘Critical Decision 2’ approval from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) that will endorse the world's largest camera's fabrication budget.
The Department of Energy’s (DOE) SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory is leading the construction of the LSST camera and its components will be developed by an international collaboration of labs and universities, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, DOE’s Brookhaven National Laboratory, along with multi-program laboratory SLAC. The assembling and testing of the camera will also be carried out by SLAC. It is being expected that the LSST will be ready by 2020 and will begin its science operations in 2022. By capturing digital images of the complete visible southern sky from the top of Cerro Pachón mountain in Chile, LSST will provide the widest, deepest and fastest views of the night sky. In its 10 years life span, the observatory will detect wide range of objects (about tens of billions of objects). About 6 million gigabytes of data per year (equivalent to 800,000 images by a regular 8 MP digital camera every night) will help the researchers to study the formation of galaxies, understand dark matter and dark energy, et al.
The objective behind developing the LSST is to revolutionize cosmic knowledge and to achieve an unprecedented information about the universe. This will help to address and solve the biggest mysteries of the universe. According to LSST Director, Steven Kahn of Stanford University, LSST survey will enhance the understanding of the dynamic Universe on timescales that will range from its earliest moments after the Big Bang to the motions of asteroids in the present solar system. ‘Critical Decision 3’ review process for the actual fabrication of the camera will take place in next summer.
Source: SLAC
The Department of Energy’s (DOE) SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory is leading the construction of the LSST camera and its components will be developed by an international collaboration of labs and universities, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, DOE’s Brookhaven National Laboratory, along with multi-program laboratory SLAC. The assembling and testing of the camera will also be carried out by SLAC. It is being expected that the LSST will be ready by 2020 and will begin its science operations in 2022. By capturing digital images of the complete visible southern sky from the top of Cerro Pachón mountain in Chile, LSST will provide the widest, deepest and fastest views of the night sky. In its 10 years life span, the observatory will detect wide range of objects (about tens of billions of objects). About 6 million gigabytes of data per year (equivalent to 800,000 images by a regular 8 MP digital camera every night) will help the researchers to study the formation of galaxies, understand dark matter and dark energy, et al.
The objective behind developing the LSST is to revolutionize cosmic knowledge and to achieve an unprecedented information about the universe. This will help to address and solve the biggest mysteries of the universe. According to LSST Director, Steven Kahn of Stanford University, LSST survey will enhance the understanding of the dynamic Universe on timescales that will range from its earliest moments after the Big Bang to the motions of asteroids in the present solar system. ‘Critical Decision 3’ review process for the actual fabrication of the camera will take place in next summer.
Source: SLAC
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