Chinese telescope collects more than 11 mln spectra
Beijing, March 29 (Xinhua/UNI) China has released 11.25 million spectra of celestial objects acquired by the Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST) to astronomers worldwide, according to the National Astronomical Observatories of China (NAOC) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences Friday.
As the world's largest spectral survey telescope, LAMOST marks the world's first spectral survey project to obtain more than 10 million spectra.
Spectra are key for astronomers to read celestial bodies' chemical compositions, densities, atmospheres and magnetism.
Among the released spectra, there are 9.37 million high-quality spectra, which is twice the total number of other astronomic surveys internationally. There are also 6.36 million stellar spectra, creating the largest stellar parameter catalog in the world.
Finished in 2008, LAMOST began regular surveys in 2012. The telescope is located in NAOC's Xinglong Observatory, in north China's Hebei Province.
The telescope can observe about 4,000 celestial bodies at one time. It can also help calculate the age of more than a million stars, providing basic data to study the evolution of our galaxy.
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