The insect-like compound eye of the Subaru Telescope will debut in February

The Subaru Telescope in Hawaii is adding a new instrument to its arsenal, one that will observe the universe through a compound eye.

The compound eye will allow Subaru to observe about 2,400 objects in space, providing an extremely wide field of view and allowing simultaneous spectral monitoring of thousands of objects. Subaru’s new instrument will help researchers answer long-standing questions in astrophysics, most importantly the formation and evolution of galaxies and the universe in which they live.

The instrument is the Prime Focus Spectrograph, one of the key instruments of the next era of the Subaru telescope. The spectrograph will collect light across the visible and some near-infrared bands. The telescope will improve the telescope’s ability to observe spectra from distant light sources.

“This is just a stepping stone toward ultimate goals such as continuing the operation over the long term, producing unprecedented scientific outputs, and sharing the exciting news from Maunakea with the local community to the fullest,” said Naoyuki Tamura, a professor at the Subaru Telescope. At the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, in a statement from the observatory.

“The discoveries that will be made with this cutting-edge instrument are something all Hawaiians can be proud of; to be at the heart of this meaningful international collaboration and human endeavor,” Tamura added.

The spectrometer team will launch a wide-sky survey that will be conducted over the next approximately five years. In all, 360 nights of telescope time will be used to collect data on millions of galaxies and hundreds of thousands of stars in our galaxy, the Milky Way, and our closest galactic neighbor, Andromeda.

The Subaru Telescope stays busy. It reveals aspects of the universe from the amount of gases present in it Distant galaxies to Strange ephemera From launching missiles over our planet. Last year, Subaru data (particularly observations made by the telescope’s Hyper Suprime-Cam) revealed two very massive stars Merging quasars At the beginning of the universe, but the telescope has also shown that the Kuiper Belt may have been greater than previously thought. In other words, the Subaru Telescope is an all-rounder, balancing its duties in deep space with those closer to home.

The new Subaru Composite Eye will build on the telescope’s heritage and give it a runway to create more history. As for how the spectrometer will change our understanding of the universe? To do that, you’ll have to check Gizmodo in five years, when the telescope’s sky survey is complete.