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K. Olsen (CTIO/NOAO), Z. Ivezic (Univ. of Washington), D. Monet (USNO), D. Zaritsky (Univ. of Arizona), M. Shara (American Museum of Natural History), A. Saha (NOAO), LSST Collaboration
The LSST will produce an accurate multi-color digital map of half the sky down to V~26.5, while time-spaced sampling of each field will provide variability, proper motions, and parallax measurements for objects brighter than V~24. These photometric, astrometric, and variability data will enable the construction of a detailed and robust map of the Milky Way, allowing exploration of its star formation, chemical enrichment, and accretion histories on a grand scale. For example, the parallax data will allow a complete census of all the stars above the hydrogen-burning limit that are closer than 500 pc, and RR Lyrae stars will be detectable through their variability to a distance limit of 400 kpc. Accurate colors will allow the estimate of photometric distance, and hence the three-dimensional number density distribution, for over a billion main-sequence stars to a distance limit of 100 kpc, and proper motion measurements will provide strong constraints on their kinematics. The LSST will also be able to detect novae out to the Virgo and Fornax clusters, providing an abundant stellar tracer of intergalactic space out to large distances. The LSST Milky Way and nova maps will revolutionize our understanding of the Milky Way and of intergalactic space, and in turn will have a significant impact on the theories of galaxy formation and evolution.
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The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: kolsen@ctio.noao.edu
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 36 5
© 2004. The American Astronomical Society.