An all-sky map of half a million supermassive black holes
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The Black Hole Mapper reaches a milestone with its first southern hemisphere optical observations, coordinated eROSITA X-ray identification, and multi-epoch tracking of accreting black holes across the universe.
APACHE POINT OBSERVATORY, NM & LAS CAMPANAS OBSERVATORY, CHILE — The Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) announces Data Release 20 (DR20) , marking a landmark expansion in the study of accreting supermassive black holes (SMBHs). As part of the fifth generation of the survey (SDSS-V), the Black Hole Mapper (BHM) program is providing unprecedented insights into the masses, growth, and physics of quasars and active galactic nuclei (AGN) across cosmic time.
DR20 delivers the first optical BOSS spectra from the southern hemisphere gathered at Las Campanas Observatory (LCO) in Chile, alongside expanded observations from Apache Point Observatory (APO) in New Mexico. In total, DR20 releases over 3.3 million optical spectra across 500,000 galaxies and 1.5 million stars, powering multi-wavelength discoveries in coordination with space-based observatories.
Unlocking the High-Energy Universe with eROSITA
Scott Anderson University of Washington sfander@uw.edu
Andrea Merloni Max-Planck-Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics am@mpe.mpg.de Mara Salvato Max-Planck-Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics mara@mpe.mpg.de