The New Sky with the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope
Space-time Warp
The detailed mass distribution in the cluster CL0024 is shown, with gravitationally distorted graph paper overlaid. This detailed dark matter distribution can be used to constrain theories of dark matter. Strong lensing of a background galaxy was inverted to yield a model for the mass distribution. This model was used to calculate the appearance of orthogonal graph paper placed behind the gravitational lens.
Check out our overview paper here. A novel telescope design enables a direct survey of dark mass in the universe. For the first time we will be able to survey mass—independent of luminosity—from near-Earth objects to developing dark matter overdensities seven billion light-years away. This proposed facility embodies a non-traditional approach to ground-based optical/IR astronomy: equal emphasis is placed on the survey products, their unique science capability and distribution to the community, the data pipeline, the camera and data system, and the telescope. As such, this project would be pursued in a manner similar to those of high-energy physics. Such a facility would be unique: no existing telescope or proposed camera could be re-designed to cover ten square degrees of sky with a collecting area of forty square meters. The science drivers described in this document have had to wait for this new capability—the ability to reach faint objects twenty times faster than currently possible over the entire visible sky. Several National Academy of Sciences and federal agency advisory committee reports* have recommended the construction of LSST. Significant progress has been achieved in developing the science case for building a Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) and in deriving the scientific requirements for the facility from the science case.
As with past technological advances that opened new windows of discovery, such a powerful system for exploring the faint and transient universe will undoubtedly serve up surprises. Images from a pilot project called the Deep Lens Survey give a taste of what the sky will look like with LSST.
* Quarks-to-Cosmos, Quantum Universe, Decadal Survey, Physics of the Universe, New Frontiers in Solar System Exploration