A massive new cosmic map is revealing black holes, rare stars, and hidden gas
Astronomers have released more than three million new spectra in a sweeping expansion that, for the first time, brings SDSS-V optical observations to the Southern Hemisphere. The data reveal everything from rare stars and glowing nebulae to hundreds of thousands of X-ray sources and supermassive black holes changing over time.
The Sloan Digital Sky Survey V has unveiled a vast cosmic map in Data Release 20 (DR20), revealing black holes, rare stars, and hidden gas. DR20 combines previously gathered data from both the northern and southern hemispheres to create a comprehensive spectroscopic map of the cosmos. This includes over three million spectra of stars and galaxies, as well as 18 additional catalogs and value-added resources.
A key addition is the connection of optical and X-ray views of the sky through the SPectroscopic IDentification of ERosita Sources (SPIDERS) program. This provides optical redshift measurements for hundreds of thousands of X-ray emitting active galactic nuclei, galaxy clusters, and active stars.
The Black Hole Mapper has grown significantly in DR20, with four times the data available in the previous release. This includes optical BOSS spectra for roughly 500,000 distinct objects. The Milky Way Mapper also expanded with a large collection of optical stellar targets. DR20 contains more than 3 million spectra of 1.5 million stars, including the first carbon-enhanced metal-poor stars from the Magellanic Clouds and the first intermediate-mass stripped star.
New spectral maps of nebulae and nearby galaxies are available in DR20, with the Local Volume Mapper now covering 6 target regions with more than 300,000 spectra. This includes integral field spectroscopy maps of Galactic HII regions, planetary nebulae, and nearby galaxies at exceptional spatial scales. Researchers can explore these objects using the new LVMvis visualization tool.
Overall, DR20 is a major leap in the scale of SDSS data products, containing observations from both hemispheres and providing valuable resources for astronomers and astronomy enthusiasts to study the physical processes shaping the universe.
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