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Number: 825

For release on September 2, 2008, 8:30:00 AM

Contacts: Karen McNulty Walsh, (631) 344-8350 or Peter Genzer, (631) 344-3174

LSST will take pictures of the sky using a gigantic camera within a telescope. Brookhaven National Laboratory has the lead role in developing the "film" for this camera, which is composed of electronic sensors, just as in a digital camera, but hundreds of times larger and sensitive to near- ultraviolet and infrared as well as visible light. The camera will capture the light from distant galaxies, which has taken billions of years to reach Earth. Brookhaven has been developing ways of learning about the mysterious ingredients that make up most of the universe -- dark energy and dark matter - from the pictures of these galaxies, so far away in space and time. For more information about Brookhaven's role in the LSST project, contact: Mona S. Rowe, (631) 344-5056 , mrowe@bnl.gov or Karen McNulty Walsh, (631) 344-8350, kmcnulty@bnl.gov.

Giant Furnace Opens to Reveal 'Perfect' LSST Mirror Blank

The single-piece primary and tertiary mirror blank cast for the LSST is "perfect", say project astronomers and engineers.

The LSST, or One of ten national laboratories overseen and primarily funded by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Brookhaven National Laboratory conducts research in the physical, biomedical, and environmental sciences, as well as in energy technologies and national security. Brookhaven Lab also builds and operates major scientific facilities available to university, industry and government researchers. Brookhaven is operated and managed for DOE's Office of Science by Brookhaven Science Associates, a limited-liability company founded by the Research Foundation for the State University of New York on behalf of Stony Brook University, the largest academic user of Laboratory facilities, and Battelle, a nonprofit, applied science and technology organization.

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