World News – CA – Next-Generation Astronomical Investigation Makes First Observations Towards New Understanding of the Cosmos

A new astronomical study that will see scientists at the University of Warwick map around 350,000 star systems has made its first observations

The fifth generation of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey collected its first-ever observations of the cosmos at 1:47m on October 24, 2020 As the world’s first all-celestial time domain spectroscopic survey, SDSS-V will provide groundbreaking information on formation and the evolution of galaxies – like our own Milky Way – and the supermassive black holes lurking in their centers

The newly launched SDSS-V will carry on the revolutionary tradition established by previous generations of investigation, with a focus on the ever-changing night sky and the physical processes that cause these changes, flickers and eruptions of supermassive black holes for the round trips of stars orbiting distant worlds SDSS-V will provide the spectroscopic backbone necessary to reach the full scientific potential of satellites such as NASA’s TESS, ESA’s Gaia and the last X-ray mission in the sky, eROSITA

The project consortium includes the University of Warwick, which will conduct an observational study of all stars within 325 light years of Earth – encompassing 350,000 systems, many of which are likely to host systems planetary

Professor Boris Gaensicke from the Department of Physics at the University of Warwick said: “When we look at the sky, what we see are mainly stars similar to our Sun, or even bigger and brighter – that is, is because we can detect these too big stars distances However, the majority of stars are red dwarfs, cooler and darker than the Sun, and these have not received much attention so far.Likewise, there are many stars that have already put end of their life, the so-called white dwarfs, who are again darker than the Sun, and not very well studied In SDSS-V, we will obtain observations of all stars within 325 light years of Earth, regardless of their brightness, and we will use this data to determine how stars and planetary systems form, evolve and die.

“The Sloan Digital Sky Survey has obtained observations over much of the northern sky over the past 20 years and produced many remarkable results. But at least as importantly, the project has set a new standard in terms of making their data available to the entire community, by developing many tools that allow everyone in the world to use these amazing observations These public data releases have enabled much more scientific work, much of which was never considered by the SDSS

“Here at Warwick, we have been ‘downloading’ SDSS data for free for many years for our research, so we are extremely happy to be an active participant in SDSS-V, which will expand, for the first time, to over the whole sky « 

“In a year where humanity has been challenged across the globe, I am so proud of the global SDSS team for demonstrating – every day – the best of human creativity, ingenuity , improvisation and resilience It has been a tough time for SDSS and the world, but I’m happy to report that the pandemic may have slowed us down, but it hasn’t stopped us, ”said SDSS-V Director Dr Juna Kollmeier, Carnegie Observatories

As an international consortium, SDSS has always relied heavily on the telephone and digital communication But adapting to exclusively virtual communication tactics has been a challenge, as has tracking global supply chains and availability of laboratories at various university partners as they enter and exit from lockdown during the final ramp-up until the start of the investigation Particularly inspiring was the project’s specialist observation staff, who worked in even greater isolation than usual to close and then reopen the mountain-top observatories.

Funded primarily by member institutions, along with grants from the Alfred P Sloan Foundation, the US National Science Foundation and the Heising-Simons Foundation, the SDSS-V will focus on three main areas of investigation, each exploring different aspects of the cosmos using different spectroscopic tools Together, these three pillars of the project, called “Mappers”, will observe more than six million objects in the sky and will follow the changes of more than one million of these objects over time.

The Local Volume Mapper of the survey will enhance our understanding of the formation and evolution of galaxies by probing the interactions between the stars that make up galaxies and the interstellar gas and dust that are scattered between them The Milky Way Mapper will reveal the physics of the stars in our Milky Way, the various architectures of its star and planetary systems, and the chemical enrichment of our galaxy since the beginning of the universe The Black Hole Mapper will measure masses and growth at course of cosmic time of supermassive black holes that reside in the heart of galaxies, and small black holes left behind when stars die

« We are delighted to start taking the first data for two of our three mappers, » added SDSS-V spokesperson Dr. Gail Zasowski, University of Utah « These early observations are already important for a wide range of scientific purposes Even these early targets provide data for studies ranging from mapping the internal regions of supermassive black holes and researching alien multiple black hole systems, to studying stars relatives and their dead nuclei, tracing the chemistry of potential stars hosting planets across the Milky Way « 

“SDSS-V will continue to transform astronomy by building on a 20-year legacy of groundbreaking science, shedding light on the most fundamental questions about the origins and nature of the universe It demonstrates all of the features that have made SDSS successful in the past: open data sharing, inclusion of diverse scientists and collaboration between many institutions, ”said Evan Michelson, Program Director at the Sloan Foundation“ We are very happy to support Juna Kollmeier and the entire SDSS team, and we are excited about this next phase of discovery »

The SDSS-V will operate from the two Apache Point observatories in New Mexico, which houses the original 25-meter telescope and Las Campanas de Carnegie observatory in Chile, where it uses the 25-meter Bridge Telescope

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The first observations of SDSS-V were taken in New Mexico with existing SDSS instruments, in a change of plan needed due to the pandemic As labs and workshops around the world navigate safely, the suite of innovative new hardware from SDSS-V is looming on the horizon – in particular, automated robot systems to steer the fiber-optic cables used to collect light from the night sky These robots will be installed in both observatories during next year New spectrographs and telescopes are also being built to enable Local Volume Mapper observations

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