A new survey of the Milky Way’s galactic plane has identified 3.32 billion cosmic objects. The survey, which is believed to be the largest of its kind, was conducted using the Dark Energy Camera at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. The catalog took two years to complete and produced over 10 terabytes of data from 21,400 individual exposures of the southern sky. The team behind the survey, known as DECaPS2, used innovative data processing methods to overcome challenges such as overlapping stars and obscuring nebulas. The data from the Dark Energy Camera was further enhanced by integrating it with observations from other telescopes. The resulting catalog will be studied by astronomers for decades to come.
Key Takeaways:
- A new survey of the Milky Way’s galactic plane has identified 3.32 billion cosmic objects, making it one of the largest celestial catalogs of its kind.
- The catalog was created using data collected over two years by the Dark Energy Camera at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile, producing over 10 terabytes of data from more than 21,000 individual exposures of the southern sky.
- Despite the challenges posed by gas and dust that obscure faint stars, the team managed to overcome these by using near-infrared light and innovative data processing methods, resulting in accurate processed data in the catalog.
“An ambitious new survey of the Milky Way’s galactic plane has revealed 3.32 billion cosmic objects in stunning detail. The enormous celestial catalog, possibly the largest of its type, was built using data from the Dark Energy Camera at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile, which is operated by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF).”
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