Rochester Institute of Technology Joins LSST Corporation

Scientists are currently building the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST, https://www.lsst.org), RIT recently joined the LSST Corporation (https://www.lsstcorporation.org), a group of nearly 40 U.S. and Chilean institutional members focused on preparing the scientific community to use the new facility. Beginning in 2022, LSST will conduct a 10-year survey of the sky that will deliver a 60-petabyte set of images and a 15-petabyte data catalog to study some of the most pressing questions about the structure and evolution of the universe and objects within it. The survey is designed to probe dark energy and dark matter, take an inventory of the solar system, explore the transient optical sky and map the Milky Way. "Between now and when the survey starts, a big push in the astronomical community is getting ready for the onslaught of data LSST will produce," said Jeyhan Kartaltepe, assistant professor of physics and astronomy.