Large telescope project receives $30 million

The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope project has received two major gifts: $20 million from the Charles Simonyi Fund for Arts and Sciences and $10 million from Microsoft founder Bill Gates. UC Irvine’s Center for Cosmology is one of 23 institutions involved with the LSST. Particle physicist David Kirkby is overseeing UCI’s participation in the project. Other UCI participants include James Bullock, Manoj Kaplinghat, Asantha Cooray, Aaron Barth, Elizabeth Barton, David Buote and Virginia Trimble. Once up and running in 2014, the 8.4-meter telescope will survey the visible sky with its 3 billion-pixel digital camera, probing the mysteries of dark matter and dark energy, and opening a movie-like window on objects that change or move. The gifts will go toward the construction of the LSST’s three large mirrors.