WEBVTT - How Fast Can We Take a Picture of the Entire Sky?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works, Hey, brain Stuff,

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<v Speaker 1>Lauren vogelbam here. Our humble vantage point on Earth makes

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<v Speaker 1>the night sky seem like a somewhat static scene, but

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<v Speaker 1>in reality, the space around us is ablaze with spectacular

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<v Speaker 1>phenomena that fairly swarmed the heavens, such as supernova a

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<v Speaker 1>k a. Exploding stars and comments. Tracking these events is

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<v Speaker 1>now a little bit easier thanks to the Zwicky Transient

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<v Speaker 1>Facility a k a. The z t F at the

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<v Speaker 1>Palomar Observatory in San Diego. Scientists from the California Institute

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<v Speaker 1>of Technology and the University of Washington and eight other

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<v Speaker 1>institutions announced the camera's launching in mid November. And if

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<v Speaker 1>you're wondering where the snazzy name comes from, the project

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<v Speaker 1>gets its name from Fritz Zwicky, the first astroiod physicist

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<v Speaker 1>to conduct research at cal Tech. During his decades long career,

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<v Speaker 1>Zwicky spotted about a hundred and twenty supernova in stark contrast,

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<v Speaker 1>the instrument that bears his name should capture a fresh

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<v Speaker 1>supernova less than twenty four hours old every single night.

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<v Speaker 1>ZTF is a robotic camera that's attached to the Samuel

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<v Speaker 1>Oskin telescope, which measures forty eight inches or one point

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<v Speaker 1>two meters and has been scanning the sky since the

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<v Speaker 1>World War two ERAZTF will operate from early to the

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<v Speaker 1>end of likely witnessing tens of thousands of transient events

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<v Speaker 1>like the blooming of distant supernova asteroids and even planets

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<v Speaker 1>caught in the inexorable pull of giant black holes. The

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<v Speaker 1>five hundred and seventy six megapixel camera captures a full

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<v Speaker 1>forty seven degrees of the northern sky and just a

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<v Speaker 1>single image that's about seven times as much of the

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<v Speaker 1>sky's earlier cameras. For reference, the sky all around Earth

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<v Speaker 1>is about forty thousand square degrees, and the ZTF captures

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<v Speaker 1>three thousand, seven hundred and fifty square degrees of the

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<v Speaker 1>heavens every hour. That means that after three nights of work,

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<v Speaker 1>the ZTF will have accumulated images of the entire night sky.

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<v Speaker 1>The system processes those images two and a half times

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<v Speaker 1>faster than older cameras, meaning researchers can take more pictures,

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<v Speaker 1>spotting ephemeral events that slower devices would miss. But that's

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<v Speaker 1>only they have the hard drive space. Each image has

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<v Speaker 1>a resolution of about twenty four thousand square pixels. The

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<v Speaker 1>pictures are so big that they can't really be viewed

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<v Speaker 1>on a single display. One researcher estimates that you need

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<v Speaker 1>about seventy two average computer monitors to see one of

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<v Speaker 1>ztfs full resolution images. Ztfs primary role is to simply

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<v Speaker 1>capture and identify transient events in the sky. Later, other

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<v Speaker 1>facilities will help sort through the massive amounts of data,

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<v Speaker 1>which will also be openly published for the entire astronomy

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<v Speaker 1>community to view, and there will be even bigger telescopes

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<v Speaker 1>to come, like the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope. Today's episode

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<v Speaker 1>was written by Dathan Chandler and produced by Tristan McNeil.

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<v Speaker 1>For more in this and lots of other spaced out topics,

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<v Speaker 1>visit our home planet, how Stuff Works dot com.