Success
Stories
Large
Synoptic Survey Telescope:
Image
Processing Pipeline Development
The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) is a
proposed ground-based 8.4-meter, 10 square-degree-field telescope that will
provide digital imaging of faint astronomical objects across the entire sky,
night after night.
In a relentless campaign of 15 second exposures,
LSST will cover the available sky every three nights, opening a movie-like
window on objects that change or move on rapid timescales: exploding
supernovae, potentially hazardous near-Earth asteroids, and distant Kuiper Belt
Objects. The superb images from the LSST will also be used to trace billions of
remote galaxies and measure the distortions in their shapes produced by lumps
of Dark Matter, providing multiple tests of the mysterious Dark Energy.
LSST is currently in the Design and Development
phase, in which the Science and System Requirements and Design are elaborated,
and a series of reviews are conducted in order to assess readiness for the
Construction phase, scheduled to start in 2010.
Data Management is one of the most challenging
aspects of the LSST, as more than 30 Terabytes of data must be processed and
stored each night in producing the largest non-proprietary data set in the
world. Every pair of 6.4 GB images must be processed within 60 seconds in order
to provide astronomical transient alerts to the community.
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the LSST Success Story
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