A 2 Micron All Sky Survey

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ABSTRACT 9317456 Kleinmann, S.G. The Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) will obtain a uniform map of the entire sky in three near-infrared bands, J (1.25 um), H (1.65 um) and K' (2.17 um), with sufficient sensitivity to detect point sources having K'14 mag. at 10 confidence. The survey will penetrate more than 25,000 times deeper than the only existing large-scale near- infrared sky survey, which was carried out nearly 25 years ago (Neugebauer and Leighton 1969), and will enable the detection and accurate measurement of positions and infrared brightness for nearly 100 million stars and at least 300,000 galaxies. Because of its great leap in sensitivity and sky coverage, the scientific potential of this database can only be imagined at present. Obvious applications are the study of the large-scale distribution of stars in the Milky Way and the large-scale distribution of galaxies in the Local Universe. More broadly, the database will enrich analysis of sky surveys carried out over the whole electromagnetic spectrum, and will vastly expand the scientific potential of new infrared array technology. The implementation of the p-project involves the construction of two 1.3m telescopes, one to be built at Mt. Hopkins and one t be built at Cerro Tololo Interamerican Observatory. The survey is planned to begin in FY96, and is expected to take 2 years in the Southern Hemisphere and 2-3 years in the Northern Hemisphere. The data will become publicly available immediately following checkout by the science team, within 1.5 years after the start of survey operations. The final data products, including a Point Source Catalog, and Extended Source database of raw data will also be available to the interested user. ***