Sloan Digital Sky Survey
The Sloan Digital Sky Survey is the most ambitious astronomical survey
project ever undertaken. The survey will map in detail one-quarter of the
entire sky, determining the positions and absolute brightness of more than
100 million celestial objects. It will also measure the distances to more
than a million galaxies and quasars.
The SDSS addresses fascinating, fundamental questions about the universe.
With the survey, astronomers will be able to see the large-scale patterns
of galactic sheets and voids in the universe. Scientists have varying ideas
about the evolution of the universe, and different patterns of large-scale
structure point to different theories of how the universe evolved. The
Sloan Digital Sky Survey will tell us which theories are right, or whether
we have to come up with entirely new ideas.
Collaborators
The University of Chicago, USA; Institute for Advanced Study, USA;
The Johns Hopkins University, USA; Princeton University, USA;
University of Washington, USA; Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, USA;
Japan Participation Group, Japan; Max-Planck-Institute for Astronomy/Heidelberg, Germany;
US Naval Observatory, USA
http://www.sdss.org/sdss.html