virtual Telescope: A Cosmic Database Emerges

About a year ago a large group of astronomers began to assemble what some of them were calling "the world's best telescope." Their ambitious instrument is still far from complete, but they recently took it for a test run. Within minutes, to their joy and astonishment, they had discovered three or four brown dwarfs, objects that occupy the niche between planet and star.

The telescope that Dr. Szalay and his colleagues have constructed is not built of glass and metal. It is a virtual observatory, consisting of terabytes of data collected by dozens of telescopes on Earth and in space, and the software necessary to mine these data for scientific gems.

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NY Times Science Report