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News Release 05-117

Scanning the Universe, Round Two

The disk galaxy NGC 7814

This image of the disk galaxy NGC 7814 could almost be an edge-on view of our own Milky Way.


July 12, 2005

This material is available primarily for archival purposes. Telephone numbers or other contact information may be out of date; please see current contact information at media contacts.

The Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS)  is entering a new phase with new goals.

SDSS is already the most ambitious astronomical survey project ever undertaken. During its five years of operation, the 300-plus scientists in the SDSS consortium have mapped galaxies, stars and quasars by the hundreds of millions over a large swath of sky. Their large-scale and very detailed surveys have confirmed that the galaxies follow a lacy, foam-like pattern that may well owe its existence to quantum effects during the Big Bang. They have identified far-off quasars that had already burst into life when the universe was just 900 million years old and barely out of infancy. They have found evidence that our own Milky Way galaxy grew by cannibalizing smaller companion galaxies.

Now, with new partners and a new round of funding, the SDSS team is ramping up in a new way.

The three-year SDSS-II project, announced on July 11, 2005, will include three components:

  1. The LEGACY initiative, which will complete the SDSS survey of the extragalactic universe, obtaining images and distances of nearly a million galaxies and quasars over a continuous swath of sky in the Northern Hemisphere.
  2. The Sloan Extension for Galactic Understanding and Exploration (SEGUE), a new effort aimed at mapping the structure and stellar makeup of the Milky Way Galaxy, and gathering data on how the Milky Way formed and evolved.
  3. An intensive study of supernovae, which are gigantic explosions produced by dying stars. By sweeping the sky to find these explosions, and then precisely measuring how far away they are, the SDSS-II  astronomers will be able to measure the rate of expansion of the universe with remarkable accuracy.

The SDSS-II project is supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation in New York City; the National Science Foundation (NSF); the U.S. Department of Energy; the Japanese Monbukagakusho; and the Max Planck Society in Germany.

For more information, see the SDSS news release.

-NSF-

SDSS-II is managed by the Astrophysical Research Consortium for the Participating Institutions:

  • The American Museum of Natural History
  • The University of Basel
  • Cambridge University
  • Case Western Reserve University
  • The University of Chicago
  • Fermilab
  • The Institute for Advanced Study
  • The Japan Participation Group
  • The Johns Hopkins University
  • The Joint Institute for Nuclear Astrophysics
  • The Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology
  • The Korean Scientist Group
  • Los Alamos National Laboratory
  • The Ohio State University
  • The Max-Planck-Institute for Astronomy
  • The Max-Planck-Institute for Astrophysics
  • New Mexico State University
  • University of Pittsburgh
  • University of Portsmouth
  • Astrophysical Institute Potsdam
  • Princeton University
  • The United States Naval Observatory
  • The University of Washington.

Media Contacts
Gary S. Ruderman, Sloan Digital Sky Survey II, (312) 320-4794, email: sdsspio@aol.com
M. Mitchell Waldrop, NSF, (703) 292-7752, email: mwaldrop@nsf.gov

Co-Investigators
Michael Strauss, Scientific Spokesperson, (609) 258-3808, email: strauss@astro.princeton.edu

The U.S. National Science Foundation propels the nation forward by advancing fundamental research in all fields of science and engineering. NSF supports research and people by providing facilities, instruments and funding to support their ingenuity and sustain the U.S. as a global leader in research and innovation. With a fiscal year 2023 budget of $9.5 billion, NSF funds reach all 50 states through grants to nearly 2,000 colleges, universities and institutions. Each year, NSF receives more than 40,000 competitive proposals and makes about 11,000 new awards. Those awards include support for cooperative research with industry, Arctic and Antarctic research and operations, and U.S. participation in international scientific efforts.

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