From: baalke@zagami.jpl.nasa.gov   
      
   Media Relations   
   Caltech   
   Pasadena, California   
      
   MEDIA CONTACT:   
   Scott Kardel, Palomar Public Affairs Director   
   (760) 742-2111 wsk@astro.caltech.edu   
      
   July 29, 2003   
      
   New Sky Survey Begins at Palomar Observatory   
      
   PALOMAR Mountain, Calif. -- A major new sky survey has begun at the Palomar   
   Observatory. The Palomar-QUEST survey, a collaborative venture between the   
   California Institute of Technology, Yale University, the Jet Propulsion   
   Laboratory, and Indiana University, will explore the universe from our solar   
   system out to the most distant quasars, more than 10 billion light-years away.   
      
   The survey will be done using the newly refurbished 48-inch Oschin Telescope,   
   originally used to produce major photographic sky atlases starting in 1950s. At   
   its new technological heart is a very special, fully digital camera. The camera   
   contains 112 digital imaging detectors, known as charge-coupled devices (CCDs).   
   The largest astronomical camera until now has had 30 CCDs. CCDs are often used   
   for digital imaging ranging from common snapshot cameras to sophisticated   
   scientific instruments.   
      
   Designed and built by scientists at Yale and Indiana Universities, the QUEST   
   (Quasar Equatorial Survey Team) camera was recently installed on the Oschin   
   Telescope. "We are excited by the new data we are starting to obtain from the   
   Palomar Observatory with the new QUEST camera," says Charles Baltay, Higgins   
   Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Yale University. Baltay's dream of   
   building a large electronic camera that could capture the entire field of view   
   of a wide-field telescope is now a reality.   
      
   The survey will generate astronomical data at an unprecedented rate, about one   
   terabyte per month; a terabyte is a million megabytes, an amount of information   
   approximately equivalent to that contained in two million books. In two years,   
   the survey will generate an amount of information about equal to that in the   
   entire Library of Congress.   
      
   A major new feature of the Palomar-QUEST survey will be many repeated   
   observations of the same portions of the sky, enabling researchers to find not   
   only objects that move (like asteroids or comets), but also objects that vary   
   in   
   brightness, such as the supernova explosions, variable stars, quasars, or   
   cosmic   
   gamma-ray bursts -- and to do this at an unprecedented scale.   
      
   "Previous sky surveys provided essentially digital snapshots of the sky", says   
   S. George Djorgovski, professor of astronomy at Caltech. "Now we are starting   
   to   
   make digital movies of the universe." Djorgovski and his team, in collaboration   
   with the Yale group, are also planning to use the survey to discover large   
   numbers of very distant quasars -- highly luminous objects believed to be   
   powered by massive black holes in the centers of young galaxies -- and to use   
   them to probe the early stages of the universe.   
      
   Richard Ellis, Steele Professor of Astronomy and director of the Caltech   
   Optical   
   Observatories, will use QUEST in the search for exploding stars, known as   
   supernovae. He and his team, in conjunction with the group from Yale, will use   
   their observations of these exploding stars in an attempt to confirm or deny   
   the   
   recent finding that our universe is accelerating as it expands.   
      
   Shri Kulkarni, MacArthur Professor of Astronomy and Planetary Science at   
   Caltech, studies gamma-ray bursts, the most energetic stellar explosions in the   
   cosmos. They are short lived and unpredictable. When a gamma-ray burst is   
   detected its exact location in the sky is uncertain. The automated Oschin   
   Telescope, armed with the QUEST camera's wide field of view, is poised and   
   ready   
   to pin down the exact location of these explosions, allowing astronomers to   
   catch and study the fading glows of the gamma-ray bursts as they occur.   
      
   Closer to home, Caltech associate professor of planetary astronomy Mike Brown   
   is   
   looking for objects at the edge of our solar system, in the icy swarm known as   
   the Kuiper Belt. Brown is convinced that there big objects out there, possibly   
   as big as the planet Mars. He, in collaboration with astronomer David   
   Rabinowitz   
   of Yale, will use QUEST to look for them.   
      
   Steve Pravdo, project manager for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Near-Earth   
   Asteroid Tracking (NEAT) Project, will use QUEST to continue the NEAT search   
   which began in 2001. The QUEST camera will extend the search for asteroids that   
   might one day approach or even collide with our planet.   
      
   The Palomar-QUEST survey will undoubtedly enable many other kinds of scientific   
   investigations in the years to come. The intent is to make all of the copious   
   amounts of data publicly available in due time on the Web, as a part of the   
   nascent National Virtual Observatory. Roy Williams, member of the professional   
   staff of Caltech's Center for Advanced Computing Research, is working on the   
   National Virtual Observatory project, which will greatly increase the   
   scientific   
   impact of the data and ease its use for public and educational outreach as   
   well.   
      
   The QUEST team members from Indiana University are Jim Musser, Stu Mufson, Kent   
   Honeycutt, Mark Gebhard, and Brice Adams. Yale University's team includes   
   Charles Baltay, David Rabinowitz, Jeff Snyder, Nick Morgan, Nan Ellman, William   
   Emmet, and Thomas Hurteau. The members from the California Institute of   
   Technology are S. George Djorgovski, Richard Ellis, Ashish Mahabal, and Roy   
   Williams. The Near-Earth Asteroid Tracking team from the Jet Propulsion   
   Laboratory consists of Raymond Bambery, principal investigator, and   
   coinvestigators, Eleanor Helin, Michael Hicks, Eric De Jong, Kenneth Lawrence,   
   and Steven Pravdo.   
      
   Installation of the QUEST camera at the Palomar Observatory was overseen by   
   Robert Brucato, Robert Thicksten, and Hal Petrie.   
      
   Photos available at   
         http://www.astro.caltech.edu/palomar/oschin_telescope.htm   
      
   Related Link:   
      
   * Palomar Observatory   
      http://www.astro.caltech.edu/palomar   
      
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