Gates donates to telescope project
TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) - January 4, 2008 Simonyi is donating $20 million and Gates $10 million to pay for
three major mirrors that will be used in the Large Synoptic Survey
Telescope, a nearly $400 million project that will be able to
survey the entire sky every three nights - something never done
before.
Astronomers anticipate surveying the heavens for 10 years, with
observations starting in 2015.
"People can find out what's going on everywhere in the sky, and
no one has ever done that before - not even come close," said
Donald Sweeney, manager of the LSST Project, a partnership
headquartered in Tucson and split among 23 universities, national
laboratories and private entities.
The telescope is to be built on 9,000-foot Cerro Pachon in
northern Chile. It will take an image every 15 seconds nightly, and
its camera - the world's largest and most powerful digital device -
will read out the image in 2 seconds.
"There are lots of things that happen every night in the sky,
and no one has been able to track them and detect them," Sweeney
said.
With the telescope operating, he said, scientists will be able
to quickly find Earth-threatening asteroids and exploding stars
called supernovas and will be able to map out 100 billion galaxies.
The two donations put the amount raised at $50 million.
Gates gave his donation directly, while the other gift came from
the Charles Simonyi Fund for Arts and Sciences, Jacoby said.
Simonyi said through spokeswoman Lee Keller that he was
attracted to the project through "its imaginative use of
technology to create a new view of our universe."
Gates called the telescope imaginative in its technology and
approach.
"LSST is truly an Internet telescope, which will put terabytes
of data each night into the hands of anyone that wants to explore
it," Gates said.
Its camera will be able to produce what project spokeswoman
Suzanne Jacoby called "a flip book of the sky."