A Motion Picture of the Sky, With Free Admission for All Researchers - Research - The Chronicle of Higher Education

"This digital camera, which will be the world's largest, will be fixed atop the most powerful surveying telescope ever built, the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope. When the instruments hit full power, in 2016, they will provide the first comprehensive motion picture of space, aiming to reveal the proximity of potentially lethal asteroids and a better understanding of two of the most elusive concepts in physics and cosmology: dark matter and dark energy. The giant tool may also transform the basic nature of academic astronomy. All the data —100 times more than in any previous astronomy database— will be public.... Surveys like the Sloan Digital Sky Survey...have made their data available to the public, but only after a proprietary period. LSST will allow anyone to see data 60 seconds after each photograph is taken...."