Scientific Goals
Particular scientific goals of the LSST include:
- Measuring weak gravitational lensing in the deep sky to detect signatures of dark energy and dark matter.
- Mapping small objects in the solar system, particularly near-Earth asteroids and Kuiper belt objects.
- Detecting transient optical events such as novae and supernovae.
- Mapping the Milky Way.
It is also hoped that the vast volume of data produced will lead to additional serendipitous discoveries.
Synoptic is an adjective from the same root as the noun "synopsis", and means "relating to data obtained nearly simultaneously over a large area."
Some of the data from the LSST (up to 30 Terabytes per night) will be made available by Google as an up-to-date interactive night-sky map.
Read more about this topic: Large Synoptic Survey Telescope
Famous quotes containing the words scientific and/or goals:
“Culture is the name for what people are interested in, their thoughts, their models, the books they read and the speeches they hear, their table-talk, gossip, controversies, historical sense and scientific training, the values they appreciate, the quality of life they admire. All communities have a culture. It is the climate of their civilization.”
—Walter Lippmann (1889–1974)
“We should stop looking to law to provide the final answer.... Law cannot save us from ourselves.... We have to go out and try to accomplish our goals and resolve disagreements by doing what we think is right. That energy and resourcefulness, not millions of legal cubicles, is what was great about America. Let judgment and personal conviction be important again.”
—Philip K. Howard, U.S. lawyer. The Death of Common Sense: How Law Is Suffocating America, pp. 186-87, Random House (1994)