The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) is a large-aperture wide-field, ground-based telescope that will survey half the sky every few nights in six optical bands ranging from 320 to 1050 nanometers. The 8.4-meter LSST will be constructed on the El Penon peak of Cerro Pachon in northern Chile. Its camera, which is made up of three refractive lenses and a 9.6-square degree field-of-view, will be the largest digital camera ever constructed.

SLAC leads the development of the LSST camera, which is currently in the final stages of R&D. When complete, the camera will produce a data set that will offer insight into a wide range of pressing questions about the attributes of dark energy and dark matter, the formation of the Milky Way, the properties of small bodies in the solar system, the trajectories of potentially hazardous asteroids and the possible existence of undiscovered explosive phenomena.

SLAC's participation in LSST is part of the research program of the SLAC–Stanford Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology.

Visit the LSST page on the KIPAC website for more info »

Additional information about LSST can be found on the project homepage.