[FPSPACE] Fw: IfA: Pan-STARRS 1 Telescope Begins Science Mission

Wed Jun 16 20:27:57 EDT 2010

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-----Original Message-----
From: "AAS Press Officer Dr. Rick Fienberg" <rick.fienberg at aas.org>
Date: Thu, 17 Jun 2010 00:18:22 
To: <Rick.Fienberg at aas.org>
Subject: IfA: Pan-STARRS 1 Telescope Begins Science Mission

THE FOLLOWING RELEASE WAS RECEIVED FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII AT
 MANOA'S INSTITUTE FOR ASTRONOMY IN HONOLULU AND IS FORWARDED FOR YOUR
 INFORMATION. (FORWARDING DOES NOT IMPLY ENDORSEMENT BY THE AMERICAN
 ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY.) Rick Fienberg, AAS Press Officer:
 rick.fienberg at aas.org, +1 202-328-2010 x116.

 June 16, 2010

 Contacts:
 Mrs. Karen Rehbock
 +1 808-956-6829
 rehbock at ifa.hawaii.edu

 Dr. Kenneth Chambers
 +1 808-956-9644
 chambers at ifa.hawaii.edu

 http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/info/press-releases/PS1/

 PAN-STARRS 1 TELESCOPE BEGINS SCIENCE MISSION

 The world became a slightly safer place on May 13, when the Pan-STARRS
 1 (PS1) telescope in Hawaii started surveying the sky for killer
 asteroids.

 This 1.8 meter (60-inch) diameter telescope on Haleakala is designed
 to automatically search the skies for objects that either move or
 change their brightness from night to night. It contains the world's
 largest digital camera, with 1,400 megapixels.

 "Although modest in size, this telescope is on the cutting edge of
 technology," said Dr. Nick Kaiser, head of the Pan-STARRS project. "It
 can image a patch of sky about 40 times the area of the full moon,
 much larger than any similar-sized telescope on Earth or in space."

 Designed and built by astronomers and engineers of the Pan-STARRS
 project at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, PS1 has now been turned
 over to the PS1 Science Consortium, a group of ten institutions,
 including UH Manoa, in the United States, Germany, United Kingdom and
 Taiwan that are funding the PS1 Science Mission.

 The giant digital camera will take over 500 exposures each night and
 send about four terabytes of data (equivalent to what 1,000 DVDs can
 hold) to the Maui High Performance Computing Center for analysis.
 Computers will rapidly compare each exposure with corresponding ones
 taken either a few minutes or a few days earlier to find objects that
 have moved or whose brightness has changed.

 In the next three years, PS1 is expected to discover about 100,000
 asteroids and to determine if any of them are on a collision course
 with Earth. It will catalog five billion stars and 500 million
 galaxies. PS1 will also be used to compile the most comprehensive
 digital map of the 75 percent of the universe visible from Hawaii.

 UH astronomers will use the data to search for killer asteroids, to
 find brown dwarfs and distant quasars, to watch supernova explosions
 in distant galaxies and to test their latest theories concerning dark
 matter and dark energy.

 PS1 is the experimental prototype for the larger PS4 telescope, which
 will have four times the power of PS1 and is planned for Mauna Kea.

                            # # #

 Photo (3.9 MB):
 http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/info/press-releases/PS1/PS1.jpg

 Caption:
 The PS1 Observatory on Haleakala, Maui just before sunrise. Mauna Kea
 on the island of Hawaii is in the background. Visible through the dome
 shutter are the calibration screen, the secondary mirror baffle, the
 truss and the primary mirror covers. The spikes on the outside of the
 dome are lightning rods.

 Credit:
 Rob Ratkowski

 The PS1 surveys have been made possible through contributions of the
 PS1 Science Consortium: the University of Hawaii Institute for
 Astronomy; the Pan-STARRS Project Office; the Max-Planck Society and
 its participating institutes, the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy,
 Heidelberg, Germany and the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial
 Physics, Garching, Germany; the Johns Hopkins University; the
 University of Durham; the University of Edinburgh; the Queen's
 University Belfast; the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics;
 the Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network, Inc.; and the
 National Central University of Taiwan. Funding for Pan-STARRS (short
 for Panoramic Survey Telescope & Rapid Response System) has been
 provided by the U.S. Air Force.

 Founded in 1967, the Institute for Astronomy at the University of
 Hawaii at Manoa conducts research into galaxies, cosmology, stars,
 planets, and the sun. Its faculty and staff are also involved in
 astronomy education, deep space missions, and in the development and
 management of the observatories on Haleakala and Mauna Kea.

 Established in 1907 and fully accredited by the Western Association of
 Schools and Colleges, the University of Hawaii is the state's sole
 public system of higher education. The UH System provides an array of
 undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees and community
 programs on 10 campuses and through educational, training, and
 research centers across the state. UH enrolls more than 50,000
 students from Hawaii, the U.S. mainland, and around the world.

 More information about the UH role in the PS1 Science Mission:
 http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/info/front_page_news/PS1_Science_at_IfA/

 PS1 Science Consortium website:
 http://ps1sc.org/

 Other PS1 Consortium press releases:
 http://ps1sc.org/Press_Releases.shtml

 Pan-STARRS website:
 http://pan-starrs.ifa.hawaii.edu/public/

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