A Survey of the Universe, to 22nd Magnitude: The Sloan Digital Sky Survey

Donald G. York

Horace B. Horton Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics
University of Chicago

Abstract

The Sloan Digital Sky Survey is a project to create a uniform database of hundreds of millions of stars, galaxies and quasars and one million spectra of the same objects. The original, five-year survey is 80% complete and an extension is planned. The discoveries, by SDSS scientists and non-SDSS scientists, alike, reach into most fields of astronomy. One half of the survey is publicly available, on line. As would be expected for a uniform survey of this scale, the project holds many records: the highest redshift QSOs, the fastest stars, the smallest stars, the widest separation, graviationally lensed QSOs. I will discuss the history of the survey; the basic equipment; the data analysis; the survey strategy; and a few of the major, scientific results- the nature of QSOs, the mass distribution of galaxies and the relation between dark matter and galaxies.