science

UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey

UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey rather than just read about it. In short: The UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey or UKIDSS is an astronomical survey conducted using the WFCAM wide field camera on the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope on Mauna Kea in Hawaii. Survey observations were commenced in 2005.

Key takeaways

UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey or UKIDSS is an astronomical survey conducted using the WFCAM wide field camera on the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope on Mauna Kea in Hawaii. Survey observations were commenced in 2005. UKIDSS consists of five surveys covering a range of areas and depths, using various combinations of five near-infrared filters.

Description UKIDSS as a large-scale near infrared survey follows 2MASS and anticipates the VISTA telescope in the Southern hemisphere. It aims to cover 7500 square degrees of the Northern sky. Four particular areas of investigation for UKIDSS are: "the coolest and nearest brown dwarfs, high-redshift dusty starburst galaxies, elliptical galaxies and galaxy clusters at redshifts 1 < z < 2, and the highest-redshift quasars, at z = 7". The UKIDSS data become available online to the ESO community immediately upon entering the WFCAM Science Archive (WSA), and are then released to the world 18 months later.

Surveys Of the five surveys in UKIDSS, two are directed towards Galactic targets and three are optimized for extra-Galactic observations. The surveys are described here in decreasing order of area. The letters refer to spectral regions; e.g. JHK is a combination of near-infrared filters, more or less synonymous with "the near-infrared".

Large Area Survey (LAS)

The LAS (extra-Galactic) covers an area of 4000 square degrees in YJHK to a depth of K = 18.4. This area has previously been covered at optical wavelengths in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. While the high Galactic latitudes covered by the LAS make it suitable for observations of sources outside the Milky Way, the survey also targets Galactic sources, incorporating a second pass in J to measure proper motions of nearby stars.

Galactic Plane Survey (GPS)

The GPS (Galactic) covers an area of 1800 square degrees in JHK to a depth of K=19.0, with 300 square degrees also covered through a narrow-band H2 filter. The motivation for the GPS is to obtain a clearer view of the Galactic Plane than is possible at optical wavelengths, due to absorption by material in the disk of the galaxy.

Galactic Clusters Survey (GCS) The GCS (Galactic) covers an area of 1400 square degrees in JHK to a depth of K=18.7. The area is distributed over ten open star clusters with the aim of measuring the mass function in a variety of Galactic environments.

Deep Extragalactic Survey (DXS) The DXS (extra-Galactic) covers an area of 35 square degrees in JK to a depth of K=21.0 with 5 square degrees also imaged in H. The survey fields are at high Galactic latitudes with low extinction, and are chosen to overlap with deep observations made at other wavelengths.

Ultra Deep Survey (UDS) The UDS (extra-Galactic) covers an area of 0.77 square degrees within the XMM-LSS field (which is contained within the DXS) in JHK to a depth of K=23.0. This is the deepest near-infrared survey yet conducted over such an area of sky, with the aim of studying the formation and evolution of galaxies in the early Universe.

Notes

External links UKIDSS Home Page WFCAM Science Archive (WSA) UKIDSS Ultra-Deep Survey

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey

In research: UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics UGPS objects, UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey, ULAS objects, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Ask Teacher Smith questions about this articleOpens your AI tutor with a question about “UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey” →

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey in simple terms?

Why does UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey.