Last Wednesday, the Center for Data Science welcomed one of its Affiliated Faculty members, astrophysicist Michael Blanton, to give a luncheon lecture on his work with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). Blanton is the director of the SDSS, where he leads a large team of astrophysicists, using data scientists to map the Universe.
The SDSS has three main objectives: to study the history of the Milky Way, to map nearby galaxies, and to learn about the Universe’s expansion in its infancy. A large part of what the SDSS does is mapping stars, quasars, and other objects that can emit visible light, as a way of mapping the voids in between these objects. These voids are largely comprised of dark matter, and the SDSS is looking to see how this dark matter has affected the clustering of stars and planets into separate galaxies. While most organizations trying to explore outer space are using telescopes in the 10 meters range, the SDSS is using a much shorter telescope, which allows for a broader view of the sky. Blanton and his team are using data science to look for patterns in how stars evolve and change over time, as a way of gaining insight into the fundamental questions surrounding the Universe’s expansion. The ultimate goal of the SDSS is to create a three dimensional map of the Universe, mapping the most distant objects we can find in the visible Universe; upon completion, it will be the largest map in human history. The SDSS is conducting, what they refer to as, an intergalactic census.