The Sloan Digital Sky Survey V has taken a major step toward mapping the sky on a truly global scale with Data Release 20. Known as DR20, the release includes the first optical (BOSS) SDSS-V spectra collected from the Southern Hemisphere, greatly expanding the survey beyond the groundwork established in earlier releases. By combining these new southern observations with data gathered in the north, SDSS-V is bringing panoptic spectroscopy across both hemispheres.
The result gives astronomers a broader view of stars, interstellar gas, and distant galaxies throughout the cosmos. DR20 contains part of the much larger panoptic spectroscopic map that the ongoing SDSS-V survey is continuing to build. Studying both the nearby and distant Universe is essential for understanding the physical processes that shape it.
DR20 advances that effort while moving SDSS-V further into an era of multi-wavelength, multi-epoch optical and infrared observations. DR20 includes a wide range of resources for researchers and astronomy enthusiasts. Among them are catalogs covering black holes, stars, and interstellar gas, along with new visualizations and scientific tools designed to help users explore the enormous dataset.
"DR20 represents an enormous leap in the scale of SDSS data products -- today we release over three million spectra of stars and galaxies along with 18 value added catalogs," said Dr. Emily Griffith of University of Colorado Boulder, spokesperson for the SDSS-V collaboration. "It's the product of years of work by a dedicated, international team of astronomers.
We're excited to share DR20 with the world and see what the community discovers with it." For the first time, DR20 includes SDSS-V stellar and extra-galactic optical spectra obtained in the Southern Hemisphere. These observations were made with the du Pont 2.5m Telescope at Las Campanas Observatory (LCO) in Chile and are combined with updated observations from the Sloan Foundation 2.5m Telescope at Apache Point Observatory (APO). Together, the two observing sites greatly expand the geographic reach of the survey and allow SDSS-V to examine the sky from both hemispheres.
Connecting Optical and X-Ray Views of the Sky DR20 also delivers the first large data stream from coordinated eROSITA-SDSS-V observations. This work is part of the SPectroscopic IDentification of ERosita Sources (SPIDERS) program and is coordinated with the second release of the eROSITA X-ray All-Sky Survey (eRASS DR2). These observations provide important identifications and optical redshift measurements for hundreds of thousands of X-ray emitting active galactic nuclei (AGN), galaxy clusters, and active stars.
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