Fermilab

03-27
December 29, 2003
For immediate release

Press Contact:
Kurt Riesselmann, Fermilab, 630-840-3351

Fermilab Scientists Offer a "Tour of the Sky" on Sunday, January 11

Registration required by Friday, January 9

BATAVIA, Ill.-Scientists at the Department of Energy's Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory are involved in the most ambitious astronomical cartography project ever undertaken: mapping more than 100 million celestial objects, from galaxies to quasars. A special two-hour program on Sunday, January 11, at 1 p.m. allows visitors to find out more about the ambitious project.

Fermilab scientist Chris Stoughton will explain how members of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey are mapping the sky and how they use the information to learn more about mysterious phenomena such as dark energy and black holes. After the talk visitors will take a behind-the-scenes tour of three locations on the Fermilab site. Scientists will be on hand to answer questions throughout the program.

To understand the structure and evolution of the universe, scientists of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey are determining the positions and brightnesses of objects in one quarter of the entire sky. When complete, the total amount of SDSS data, about 15 terabytes (trillion bytes), will rival the information content of the Library of Congress. Fermilab serves as the storage and computing center for the data gathered by the SDSS telescope at top of Apache Pointe, New Mexico. More than 150 scientists from 13 institutions are collaborating on the project.

Participation in the program is limited. Visitors need to call 630-840-5588 during business hours to register. The minimum age for participation is 10 years. Advance registration for the program, which is free of charge, is required by Friday, January 9, at noon.

Fermilab is a national laboratory funded by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy, operated by Universities Research Association, Inc.

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