Date: 03 Oct 2006 12:37:34
From:
Subject: New Window of Universe Opens at Griffith; Unprecedented Image from Palomar
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Caltech News Release
For Immediate Release
ober 3, 2006
New Window of Universe Opens at Griffith; Unprecedented Image from
Palomar
PASADENA, Calif.--Caltech scientists have produced the largest
astronomical image ever in order to inspire the public with the
wonders of space exploration. The image has been reproduced as a
giant mural in the new exhibit hall of the landmark Griffith
Observatory, which will reopen Nov. 3 after several years of
renovation.
A team led by Caltech Professor of Astronomy George Djorgovski used
data from the Palomar-Quest digital sky survey, an ongoing project at
the Samuel Oschin Telescope at Palomar Observatory, which is owned
and operated by Caltech. The survey is a joint venture between groups
at Caltech and Yale University.
The great cosmic panorama, named The Big Picture, is 152 feet long by
20 feet high, and it covers the entire wall of the Richard and Lois
Gunther Depths of Space exhibit hall at Griffith Observatory. It is
displayed on 114 steel-backed porcelain enamel plates, expected to
last many decades, and it will be viewed by millions of visitors
annually.
"We wanted to inspire the public and convey the richness of the deep
universe and its understanding, and to do it with a real scientific
data set," says Djorgovski. "We are doing research with these data,
but there is also a sense of beauty and awe, which is important to
communicate, especially to young people."
The image covers only a sliver of the visible sky, less than a
thousandth of the celestial sphere, roughly an area your index finger
would cover if held about a foot away from your eyes. The entire
Palomar-Quest sky survey covers an area about 500 times greater.
The part of the sky covered by The Big Picture is in the
constellation of Virgo, and it spans the core of the Virgo cluster of
galaxies, about 60 million light years away; the light from the
brightest galaxies seen in the picture started its journey when
dinosaurs ruled the Earth.
"What is perhaps most striking about the image is the wealth of the
information in it, and the remarkable diversity of cosmic objects it
shows," says Ashish Mahabal, the project scientist for the survey.
Aside from the prominent bright galaxies in the Virgo cluster, which
dominate the view, the image contains nearly a million much fainter
and more distant galaxies; hundreds of thousands of stars in our own
galaxy (the Milky Way); a thousand quasars (luminous objects believed
to be powered by massive black holes) with distances up to 12 billion
light-years away, hundreds of asteroids in our own solar system; and
at least one comet.
The data used to construct the image were obtained by the
Caltech-Yale team in the course of over 20 nights at the Samuel
Oschin Telescope at Palomar in 2004 and 2005. The data were then
transferred to Caltech, Yale, and other locations via broadband
research. Several hundred gigabytes of raw data were then distilled
to produce a 7.4-gigabyte color image, using cutting-edge technology
at Caltech's Center for Advanced Computing Research.
"This project illustrates a powerful synergy between modern astronomy
and advanced computing, which is increasingly becoming a driving
force for both research and education," says Roy Williams, a
scientist on the team, and one of the leaders of the U.S. National
Virtual Observatory effort. "We plan to use The Big Picture as a
magnet and a gateway to learning, not only about the universe, but
also about the computing and information technology used to create
the mural."
Sky surveys are a large part of the scientific history and legacy of
Palomar Observatory starting with the pioneering work of Caltech
professor Fritz Zwicky in the 1930s. He used the first such survey
to discover numerous supernova explosions, large-scale structures in
the universe, and other wonders. A major photographic sky survey
conducted in the 1950s at the 48-inch telescope provided the first
modern atlas of the sky, guiding many astronomical inquiries. The
telescope was later named in honor of Samuel Oschin, the late Los
Angeles business leader and philanthropist. Successive surveys at the
same telescope, including the current Palomar-Quest project, continue
to provide fundamental data sets for astronomy. They have led to
numerous important discoveries, ranging from the outer reaches of the
solar system to the very distant universe.
In addition to The Big Picture, several exhibits at Griffith have
strong connections to Caltech and Palomar, including a model of the
Hale 200-inch Telescope, which was a major engineering feat at the
time of its construction and has been at the center of many
groundbreaking astronomical discoveries for nearly half a century.
A Big Picture education/public outreach website will become active
following the Griffith Observatory reopening:
http://bigpicture.caltech.edu.
The Caltech team that created The Big Picture includes Djorgovski;
staff scientists Mahabal, Williams, Matthew Graham, and Andrew Drake;
graduate students Milan Bogosavlijevic and Ciro Donalek; digital
image experts Leslie Maxfield, Simona Cianciulli, and Radica
Bogosaljevic; and several staff members at Palomar Observatory and
the Center for Advanced Computing Research. Members of the Yale team
who contributed data and observations include Charles Baltay, David
Rabinowitz and Nan Elman, graduate student Anne Bauer, and several
others. The work was supported mainly by the National Science
Foundation.
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Contacts: S. George Djorgovski, (626) 395-4415,
george@astro.caltech.edu
Jill Perry, (626) 395-3226, jperry@caltech.edu
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