![]() ![]() The tapes travel from Apache Point to Fermilab by express courier. Charge "buckets" are converted to digitized signals and written to tape at the observatory. Information processing for the SDSS begins when the CCDs collect light. Fermilab also coordinates the smooth operation of all the pipelines. Pipeline that selects candidates for the spectroscopic survey. University of Chicago scientists created the spectroscopic pipeline.įermilab's contributions include the monitor-telescope pipeline and the The data pipelines are a collaborative effort. Pipeline, software changes pixels into real information. The 2.5-meter telescope go in one end of the astrometric pipeline, and In this case, digitized data from photons reaching Naval Observatory,ĭetermines the precise absolute two-dimensional position of stars and The data "flow" through the pipelines with little human intervention.įor example, the astrometric pipeline, built by computer scientists at the U.S. The term "pipeline" connotes the automated nature of the data processing A pipeline is a computer program that processesĭigitized data automatically to extract certain types of information. Led the effort to develop what the SDSS calls data-processing If too much time goes by, the target objects will set as the season passes. ![]() Scientists must initially process the data quickly (within aboutĪ week) because SDSS astronomers need the information to configure their telescope to work most efficiently during the next dark phase of the moon. The spectral digitized data yield informationĪbout galaxies' velocities as they move away from the Earth, from which we can In the celestial directory: the spectral survey, a section containing a smaller number of entries with more detailed information. The phone book, with a name and an address. Then collect the stars, galaxies, and quasars into a catalog.Ĭomputing experts describe the project as something like creating the Astronomers must be able to find, distinguish, and measure the brightness of celestial objects, and Astronomers process the data to produce information they can use to identify and measure properties of stars and galaxies. The task of data managers for the Sloan Digital Sky Survey is to take digitized data - the pixels electronically encoded on the mountaintop in New Mexico - and turn them into real information about real things. Each image is composed of myriad pixels (picture elements) each pixel captures the brightness from each tiny pointīut the sky is not made of pixels. ![]() The lightceases to exist as photons, but the data within it lives on as digital images recorded on magnetic tape. On a clear, dark night, light that has traveled through space for aīillion years touches a mountaintop in southern New Mexico and enters thesophisticated instrumentation of the SDSS's 2.5-meter telescope. ![]()
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