The new Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) will soon be getting the Observatory Control System software, as its design study has just been completed by the Cambridge-based scientific software consultancy Observatory Sciences.
With the help of this software, the LSST will have a field of view 1000 times larger compared to the existing large telescopes. The US project headquartered in Arizona is designing this telescope with an excellent light gathering capability.
The new telescope will be capable of imaging an area of the sky — roughly fifty times that of the full moon — every 15 seconds! Successfully imaging objects that change or move rapidly, this telescope could include -
• supernova explosions that can be seen halfway across the universe,
• nearby asteroids that might potentially strike Earth, and
• faint objects in the outer solar system, far beyond Pluto!
The LSST will also chart the history of the expansion of the universe, also probing the mysterious nature of dark energy using the light-bending gravity of dark matter.
