Astronomers in China working with one of world’s largest optical telescopes released a huge collection of data over the new year holiday, increasing the chances of “significant findings” in space exploration, experts say.
The latest update to the National Astronomical Observatories’ sky survey, conducted using the LAMOST telescope, includes some 4.62 million spectral data relating to the structure, formation and evolution of the Milky Way.
LAMOST－short for Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope－has been used to carry out a massive sky survey since September 2012. So far, it has collected more data than all previous sky surveys combined, according to the NAO.
“As more and more data are released, there will be more significant findings,” said Yan Jun, director of the NAO.
Chu Yaoquan, deputy director of operations and development at LAMOST, described the survey as like a census of the stars. “The project gives us a large sample of stars. With the large sample－say, a few million－we can know more about the past and present of the galaxy,” he explained in an earlier interview.
Published by ECNS China. See more at: http://www.ecns.cn/2016/01-04/194497.shtml