Sloan Digital Sky Survey

Swannie writes: "There's a story in today's Chicago Tribune about a joint project that Fermi Lab is taking on with Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York. The goal is to produce a 3D map of the universe using a really big digital camera, and a really creative way to add "depth" to the image. The article has some decent technical details for a newspaper, including a pretty picture." Update: 03/12 15:44 GMT by M : The blurb is in error. A particular scientist from Rensselaer is mentioned in the article, but Rensselaer isn't part of the project as an institution.

Comments

"hard to say why people should study astronomy"

[da5idnetlimit.com]

"It's hard to say why people should study astronomy," said Gunn. "But in the scheme of human intellect, it is important to know where we came from and what's likely to be in store for us."

Oh, you mean this is a $85 million Horoscope Machine....

What fascinates me...

[petis]

.. is the creative process behind projects of this magnitude. Where do people get these ideas? Is the scenario below how it happened?

- Hey, I just got this great idea!
- Uhu, what's that?
- Let's make a 3D map of the entire universe!
- Sounds cool, let's get some funding!

Or is it more like:
- Hmmm, this problem would be easily solved if we had a 3D map of the universe..
- Sounds cool, let's get some funding for that project!

Or the third alternative:
- Hmmm, we need some funding!
- Sounds cool, let's make a 3D map of the entire universe!
- Great, that will keep us running for a couple of years!

:)

Forgive me, but... `news'??

[Cally]

I know this is a lame sorta thing to say but really, the Sloan DSS has been running for... what, 3? 4? years now? Interesting, I grant you, but hardly news.

Now the 2df galaxy cluster mapping project which are giving us maps of our galaxy's position out to about 1B light-years -- /that's/ interesting AND news. hell,