Night sky survey could lead to discovery of billions of new stars

A 1.8-metre telescope perched on the summit of the Haleakala volcano in Hawaii has captured large images of the sky every 30 seconds for four years. 

It means researchers can now study the world's largest digital sky survey, which includes three billion separate pieces of data.

Experts say it allows them to explore the "farthest reaches of the universe and gain insights into elusive dark energy and dark matter."

Image Caption: The telescope located at the summit of Haleakala volcano. Pic: R Radowski

Images will now be be examined and catalogued

It is part of a international collaboration between NASA, the Space Telescope Science Institute and universities including Edinburgh, Durham and Queen's in Belfast.

Data already released by the PanSTARRS project has helped astronomers discover hundreds of supernovae - exploding stars that give off massive amounts of energy as they die.

Professor Andy Lawrence, from the University of Edinburgh, said: "This rapid, repeating survey has enabled us to discover very rare events in which a massive black hole shreds a passing star, which otherwise would have been impossible to spot.

"Releasing the data will now enable astronomers round the world to study huge numbers of distant stars and galaxies in ways we can't even guess."