Sloan Digital Sky Survey
The Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) intends to reveal large-scale structure in the distribution of galaxies with a spatial extent, and precision in its determination, that greatly exceed current capabilities. This map of the large-scale distribution of galaxies will serve to constrain models for the origin and evolution of that structure, and thereby to address fundamental questions in cosmology and astrophysics, including the amount and distribution of mass with respect to the luminous material in the Universe. To achieve these goals, one million redshifts are to be obtained to a uniform flux limit of galaxies within a solid angle of pi steradians, away from the obscuring disk of the Milky Way. The need for a uniform and well-calibrated flux limit requires a new imaging survey to be conducted, from which the spectroscopic (redshift) target list will be derived. This imaging survey yields a two-dimensional map of the same region, which itself will provide new cosmological information since the detection threshold of the imaging survey is much fainter than that of the spectroscopic survey. A widefield 2.5-m telescope dedicated to this project will soon be undergoing commissioning tests at Apache Point Observatory, near Sunspot, New Mexico. The imaging system and the spectroscopic system share the same focal plane via an instrument exchange mechanism. The unique data products include the multi-band imaging survey (there are 5 wave bands covering the visible spectral range, the data from which are collected nearly simultaneously), and the inclusion of quasar candidates along with the galaxies. The project will produce at least 10 Terabytes of data in five years of operation (each long, clear night will yield 200 GBy of raw data). It is Fermilab's primary responsibility on this project to handle this volume of data. The implementation of the end-to-end data system has been assigned to Fermilab. This includes design and construction of the data acquisition system (on the mountaintop at Apache Point), and the specification and responsibility for the production system (in the Feynman Computing Center at Fermilab). The scientific coding is being undertaken by scientists at the participating institutions (including Fermilab). The design and implementation of the code management system, the promulgation of standards, and the computing framework in which the scientific code runs, are also Fermilab's responsibility.
- Research Organization:
- Fermi National Accelerator Lab. (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP)
- Contributing Organization:
- SDSS
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC02-07CH11359
- OSTI ID:
- 1847781
- Report Number(s):
- FERMILAB-PROPOSAL-0885; oai:inspirehep.net:442297
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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