Physical Society Colloquium

SDSS-V: Pioneering Panoptic Spectroscopy

Juna Kollmeier

CITA

I will describe the current progress within the Fifth Generation of SDSS. SDSS-V is an unprecedented all-sky spectroscopic survey of over six million objects. It is designed to decode the history of the Milky Way galaxy, trace the emergence of the chemical elements, reveal the inner workings of stars, and investigate the origin of planets. It will provide the most comprehensive all-sky spectroscopy to multiply the science from the space-based missions such as Gaia, TESS and eROSITA. SDSS will also create a contiguous spectroscopic map of the interstellar gas in the Milky Way and nearby galaxies that is 1,000 times larger than the state of the art, uncovering the self-regulation mechanisms of galactic ecosystems. It will pioneer systematic, spectroscopic monitoring across the whole sky, revealing changes on timescales from 20 minutes to 20 years. — a critical need to constrain modern astrophysical theories in many areas. I will highlight key areas of current scientific and technical development as well as opportunities to participate in the survey underway. I will also touch on future plans to continue to map the large scale structure of the Universe in order to understand its origins. Finally, I will describe why we undertake this cycle of theory and experiment — not just as part of the scientific frontier but as part of our inalienable right to understand the physical world.

Note: The live presentation of this colloquium will be available via zoom only.