Andrew Yee[_1_]
January 10th 08, 01:30 AM
Large Synoptic Survey Telescope
Tucson, Arizona
EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE: January 3, 2008
RELEASE LSSTC-06
LSST Receives $30 Million from Charles Simonyi and Bill Gates
The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) Project is pleased to announce
receipt of two major gifts: $20M from the Charles Simonyi Fund for Arts and
Sciences and $10M from Microsoft founder Bill Gates.
Under development since 2000, the LSST is a public-private partnership. This
gift enables the construction of LSST's three large mirrors; these mirrors
take over five years to manufacture. The first stages of production for the
two largest mirrors are now beginning at the Mirror Laboratory at the
University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona. Other key elements of the LSST
system will also be aided by this commitment.
The LSST exemplifies characteristics Simonyi and Gates have exhibited in
their successful lives and careers -- innovation, excitement of discovery,
cutting edge technology, and a creative energy that pushes the possibilities
of human achievement. The LSST leverages advances in large telescope design,
imaging detectors, and computing to engage everyone in a journey of cosmic
discovery.
Proposed for "first light" in 2014, the 8.4-meter LSST will survey the
entire visible sky deeply in multiple colors every week with its
three-billion pixel digital camera, probing the mysteries of Dark Matter and
Dark Energy, and opening a movie-like window on objects that change or move.
"This support from Charles Simonyi and Bill Gates will lead to a
transformation in the way we study the Universe," said University of
California, Davis, Professor and LSST Director J. Anthony Tyson. "By mapping
the visible sky deeply and rapidly, the LSST will let everyone experience a
novel view of our Universe and permit exciting new questions in a variety of
areas of astronomy and fundamental physics."
The LSST will be constructed on Cerro Pachon, a mountain in northern Chile.
Its design of three large mirrors and three refractive lenses in a camera
leads to a 10 square degree field-of-view with excellent image quality. The
telescope's 3200 Megapixel camera will be the largest digital camera ever
constructed. Over ten years of operations, about 2000 deep exposures will be
acquired for every part of the sky over 20,000 square degrees. This color
"movie" of the Universe will open an entirely new window: the time domain.
LSST will produce 30 Terabytes of data per night, yielding a total database
of 150 Petabytes. Dedicated data facilities will process the data in real
time.
"What a shock it was when Galileo saw in his telescope the phases of Venus,
or the moons of Jupiter, the first hints of a dynamic universe" Simonyi
said. "Today, by building a special telescope-computer complex, we can study
this dynamism in unprecedented detail. LSST will produce a database suitable
for answering a wide range of pressing questions: What is dark energy? What
is dark matter? How did the Milky Way form? What are the properties of small
bodies in the solar system? Are there potentially hazardous asteroids that
may impact the earth causing significant damage? What sort of new phenomena
have yet to be discovered? "
"LSST is just as imaginative in its technology and approach as it is with
its science mission. LSST is truly an internet telescope, which will put
terabytes of data each night into the hands of anyone that wants to explore
it. Astronomical research with LSST becomes a software issue -- writing code
and database queries to mine the night sky and recover its secrets. The 8.4
meter LSST telescope and the three gigapixel camera are thus a shared
resource for all humanity -- the ultimate network peripheral device to
explore the universe" Gates said. "It is fun for Charles and me to be a team
again supporting this work given all we have done together on software
projects."
"The LSST will be the world's most powerful survey telescope. This major
gift keeps the project on schedule by enabling the early fabrication of
LSSTs large optics and other long-lead components of the LSST system," said
Donald Sweeney, LSST Project Manager.
LSST is designed to be a public facility -- the database and resulting
catalogs will be made available to the community at large with no
proprietary restrictions. A sophisticated data management system will
provide easy access, enabling simple queries from individual users (both
professionals and amateurs), as well as computationally intensive scientific
investigations that utilize the entire database. The public will actively
share the adventure of discovery of our dynamic Universe.
More information about the LSST including current images, graphics, and
animation can be found at
http://www.lsst.org
In 2003, the LSST Corporation was formed as a non-profit 501(c)3 Arizona
corporation with headquarters in Tucson, AZ. Membership has since expanded
to twenty two members including Brookhaven National Laboratory, California
Institute of Technology, Columbia University, Google Inc.,
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Johns Hopkins University, Kavli
Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology - Stanford University, Las
Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network, Inc., Lawrence Livermore
National Laboratory, National Optical Astronomy Observatory, Princeton
University, Purdue University, Research Corporation, Stanford Linear
Accelerator Center, The Pennsylvania State University, The University of
Arizona, University of California, Davis, University of California at
Irvine, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, University of
Pennsylvania, University of Pittsburgh, and the University of Washington.
LSST is a public-private partnership. Design and development activity is
supported by in part the National Science Foundation under Scientific
Program Order No. 9 (AST-0551161) and Scientific Program Order No. 1
(AST-0244680) through Cooperative Agreement AST-0132798 to the National
Optical Astronomy Observatory via the Association of Universities for
Research in Astronomy. Portions of this work are supported by the Department
of Energy under contract DE-AC02-76SF00515 with the Stanford Linear
Accelerator Center, contract DE-AC02-98CH10886 with Brookhaven National
Laboratory, and contract DE-AC52-07NA27344 with Lawrence Livermore National
Laboratory. Additional funding comes from the Institut National de Physique
Nucleaire et de Physique des Particules (IN2P3) in France, private
donations, grants to universities, and other LSSTC institutional members.
Tucson, Arizona
EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE: January 3, 2008
RELEASE LSSTC-06
LSST Receives $30 Million from Charles Simonyi and Bill Gates
The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) Project is pleased to announce
receipt of two major gifts: $20M from the Charles Simonyi Fund for Arts and
Sciences and $10M from Microsoft founder Bill Gates.
Under development since 2000, the LSST is a public-private partnership. This
gift enables the construction of LSST's three large mirrors; these mirrors
take over five years to manufacture. The first stages of production for the
two largest mirrors are now beginning at the Mirror Laboratory at the
University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona. Other key elements of the LSST
system will also be aided by this commitment.
The LSST exemplifies characteristics Simonyi and Gates have exhibited in
their successful lives and careers -- innovation, excitement of discovery,
cutting edge technology, and a creative energy that pushes the possibilities
of human achievement. The LSST leverages advances in large telescope design,
imaging detectors, and computing to engage everyone in a journey of cosmic
discovery.
Proposed for "first light" in 2014, the 8.4-meter LSST will survey the
entire visible sky deeply in multiple colors every week with its
three-billion pixel digital camera, probing the mysteries of Dark Matter and
Dark Energy, and opening a movie-like window on objects that change or move.
"This support from Charles Simonyi and Bill Gates will lead to a
transformation in the way we study the Universe," said University of
California, Davis, Professor and LSST Director J. Anthony Tyson. "By mapping
the visible sky deeply and rapidly, the LSST will let everyone experience a
novel view of our Universe and permit exciting new questions in a variety of
areas of astronomy and fundamental physics."
The LSST will be constructed on Cerro Pachon, a mountain in northern Chile.
Its design of three large mirrors and three refractive lenses in a camera
leads to a 10 square degree field-of-view with excellent image quality. The
telescope's 3200 Megapixel camera will be the largest digital camera ever
constructed. Over ten years of operations, about 2000 deep exposures will be
acquired for every part of the sky over 20,000 square degrees. This color
"movie" of the Universe will open an entirely new window: the time domain.
LSST will produce 30 Terabytes of data per night, yielding a total database
of 150 Petabytes. Dedicated data facilities will process the data in real
time.
"What a shock it was when Galileo saw in his telescope the phases of Venus,
or the moons of Jupiter, the first hints of a dynamic universe" Simonyi
said. "Today, by building a special telescope-computer complex, we can study
this dynamism in unprecedented detail. LSST will produce a database suitable
for answering a wide range of pressing questions: What is dark energy? What
is dark matter? How did the Milky Way form? What are the properties of small
bodies in the solar system? Are there potentially hazardous asteroids that
may impact the earth causing significant damage? What sort of new phenomena
have yet to be discovered? "
"LSST is just as imaginative in its technology and approach as it is with
its science mission. LSST is truly an internet telescope, which will put
terabytes of data each night into the hands of anyone that wants to explore
it. Astronomical research with LSST becomes a software issue -- writing code
and database queries to mine the night sky and recover its secrets. The 8.4
meter LSST telescope and the three gigapixel camera are thus a shared
resource for all humanity -- the ultimate network peripheral device to
explore the universe" Gates said. "It is fun for Charles and me to be a team
again supporting this work given all we have done together on software
projects."
"The LSST will be the world's most powerful survey telescope. This major
gift keeps the project on schedule by enabling the early fabrication of
LSSTs large optics and other long-lead components of the LSST system," said
Donald Sweeney, LSST Project Manager.
LSST is designed to be a public facility -- the database and resulting
catalogs will be made available to the community at large with no
proprietary restrictions. A sophisticated data management system will
provide easy access, enabling simple queries from individual users (both
professionals and amateurs), as well as computationally intensive scientific
investigations that utilize the entire database. The public will actively
share the adventure of discovery of our dynamic Universe.
More information about the LSST including current images, graphics, and
animation can be found at
http://www.lsst.org
In 2003, the LSST Corporation was formed as a non-profit 501(c)3 Arizona
corporation with headquarters in Tucson, AZ. Membership has since expanded
to twenty two members including Brookhaven National Laboratory, California
Institute of Technology, Columbia University, Google Inc.,
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Johns Hopkins University, Kavli
Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology - Stanford University, Las
Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network, Inc., Lawrence Livermore
National Laboratory, National Optical Astronomy Observatory, Princeton
University, Purdue University, Research Corporation, Stanford Linear
Accelerator Center, The Pennsylvania State University, The University of
Arizona, University of California, Davis, University of California at
Irvine, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, University of
Pennsylvania, University of Pittsburgh, and the University of Washington.
LSST is a public-private partnership. Design and development activity is
supported by in part the National Science Foundation under Scientific
Program Order No. 9 (AST-0551161) and Scientific Program Order No. 1
(AST-0244680) through Cooperative Agreement AST-0132798 to the National
Optical Astronomy Observatory via the Association of Universities for
Research in Astronomy. Portions of this work are supported by the Department
of Energy under contract DE-AC02-76SF00515 with the Stanford Linear
Accelerator Center, contract DE-AC02-98CH10886 with Brookhaven National
Laboratory, and contract DE-AC52-07NA27344 with Lawrence Livermore National
Laboratory. Additional funding comes from the Institut National de Physique
Nucleaire et de Physique des Particules (IN2P3) in France, private
donations, grants to universities, and other LSSTC institutional members.