The LSST, originally known as the Dark Matter Telescope, will detect the distribution of dark matter throughout the cosmos. “Based on these tests, we now know that the primary measurements of the LSST will not be affected by these structural defects.” ![]() “What we found is that, although there are still subtle defects and minor variations in the sensors, they are far, far better than those on previous sky survey telescopes, and better even than early prototypes that were built for the LSST,” said May. Their results will be described in a series of publications, including one soon to appear in the Journal of Instrumentation, with former Brookhaven postdoc Andrés Plazas (now at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory) and Toru Tamagawa, head of RIKEN Astrophysics in Japan, as co-authors. Working with May, Yuki Okura, a postdoctoral fellow from Japan’s RIKEN laboratory stationed at the RIKEN-Brookhaven Research Center, performed precision studies of micron-sized defects and pixel-by-pixel variations in the silicon sensors, and then modeled their potential impact on the telescope’s ability to detect the effects of dark matter. “We have access to the detectors and can measure their properties we can simulate the evolution of the universe as a function of the properties of dark energy and we can determine how the properties of the detector will affect our determination of the properties of dark energy,” May said. We don’t want to be limited by systematic errors in our detectors,” he said.īrookhaven scientists are in a unique position to do the testing because, in addition to collaborating on the cosmological mission of the LSST, the Lab is leading the design and fabrication of the sensors for the telescope’s 3.2-gigapixel camera. So we’ll have tremendous statistical power to explore the distribution of dark matter and the nature of dark energy, two of the greatest puzzles in physics. ![]() “We’ll be looking at 10 billion galaxies to create an unparalleled wide-field astronomical survey of our universe-wider and deeper than all previous telescopes combined. “Based on these tests, we now know that the primary measurements of the LSST will not be affected by the tree ring defects in the sensors.” That’s exciting, said Brookhaven physicist Morgan May, who led the tests, because the galaxy shapes the LSST seeks to see will offer insight into the most mysterious components of our universe: invisible dark matter, which makes up a quarter of the cosmos, and the dark energy scientists suspect has driven the accelerating expansion of the universe and affected the clumpiness of its structure as we see it today. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory. Fortunately sensors for the camera of the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST), expected to see “first light” from atop a mountain in Chile in 2020, just received very promising “vision” test results from physicists at the U.S. When you’re building a massive telescope designed to detect subtle shapes in the light emitted by distant galaxies, you’d like to know that the shapes you are seeing are accurate and not the result of defects in your telescope’s sensors. Screens show an image of the sensors' "tree ring" defects and a rendering of the telescope design. ![]() Results give scientists additional confidence that the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) will detect effects of dark matter and dark energyīrookhaven physicist Morgan May and Yuki Okura, a postdoctoral fellow from Japan's RIKEN laboratory stationed at the RIKEN-Brookhaven Research Center, holding Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) sensor components. Galaxy-Gazing Telescope Sensors Pass Important Vision Tests BNL | Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) |
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