Google will be teaming with a consortium of 19 universities, national labs and private foundations to build the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST). The LSST is scheduled to commence operation by 2013.

This screams mashup.



Imagine pointing your browser to http://www.google.com/universe (site doesn't actually exist) and being able to see nebula, quasars, and all sorts of other astronomical phenomena with the click of a mouse.



Or perhaps you could stick within the confines of our local solar system by getting an up-close view of Saturn's rings or the Moon's Sea of Tranquility.



Ok, so the concept might be a tad farfetched, but it's not outside the realm of possibility here. Obviously, Google's primary function in the project will lie in collecting, aggregating, and helping provide analytics for the data that the telescope will collect.



The mashup project, which I've affectionately dubbed "Google Universe", would just be an added bonus.



Ok, now to the facts. The telescope will be perched atop Cerro Pachn in Chile, and will primarily focus on providing deeper insights into dark matter and dark energy, and documenting other items such as exploding supernovae, near-Earth asteroids, and distant Kuiper Belt Objects.



William Coughran, Google Vice President of Engineering, says in an article covering the announcement, "Google's mission is to take the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful. The data from LSST will be an important part of the world's information, and by being involved in the project we hope to make it easier for that data to become accessible and useful."



"The LSST will be the world's most powerful survey telescope, with vast data management challenges. LSST engineers and scientists have been collaborating with Google on number of these exciting opportunities." says Donald Sweeney, LSST project manager.



"Even though the universe is very old, exciting things happen every second. The LSST will be able to find these events hundreds of times better than today's other big telescopes. Google will help us organize and present the seemingly overwhelming volumes of data collected by the LSST."



You can find more information about the LSST telescope here.




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