Portsmouth Joins Race to Build Sky’s First Movie-Making Telescope
The University of Portsmouth has thrown its weight behind the game-changing Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) – set to deliver the fastest, widest, and deepest views of the night sky ever seen. When it kicks off in 2021, this beast of a telescope will capture the cosmos like never before.
800 Panoramas a Night from the Andes
Currently being built high in the Andes, the LSST will snap more than 800 panoramic images every single night with its staggering 3.2 billion-pixel camera. It will scan the entire southern sky twice a week, producing continuous ‘movies’ of space. Portsmouth’s Professor Bob Nichol, head of the Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation, said:
“Over a decade, the telescope will capture tens of billions of objects in unprecedented detail. We’ll find hundreds of thousands more supernovae and millions of asteroids. This project is pioneering, producing data like we’ve never seen before.”
UK’s Double Act: Portsmouth and Oxford
Portsmouth and Oxford universities stand as the UK’s sole institutional members of the LSST Corporation, mainly funded by US agencies. Portsmouth academics are already busy planning where and how often the telescope will scan the skies.
Revealing the Unknown Unknowns
Professor Nichol highlighted the revolutionary potential of LSST’s moving sky images:
“Before, we could easily miss a supernova if we weren’t looking at the right spot at the right time. The LSST will deliver 100 times more data than ever before. It’s the next big leap in astronomy.”
The real challenge? Sifting through this mountain of data to uncover not just ‘known unknowns’ but the mysterious ‘unknown unknowns’ — cosmic phenomena we don’t yet even suspect.
Sharper Eyes on the Dark Universe
- The LSST can image 10 square degrees of sky in a single shot — 40 times the size of the full moon.
- Each 30-second snap can spot objects 10 million times fainter than the naked eye can see.
- Scientists hope to crack the mysteries of dark matter and dark energy, the invisible forces shaping the universe’s expansion.
With Portsmouth on board, the UK is set to help film the cosmos like never before. Watch this space — or rather, watch the sky.
