10 October 2007

SDSS Image of the Week Archive

The Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), the most ambitious astronomical survey project ever undertaken, the task of mapping the universe and determining our place in it. SDSS is systematically mapping a quarter of the entire sky, producing a detailed image of it and determining the positions and absolute brightnesses of more than 100 million celestial objects. It is also measuring the distances to a million of the nearest galaxies, giving us a three-dimensional picture of the universe through a volume one hundred times larger than that explored to date. SDSS is also recording the distances to 100,000 quasars — the most distant objects known — giving us unprecedented knowledge of the distribution of matter to the edge of the visible universe.

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