Google has joined a group of nineteen universities and national labs that are building the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST). Scheduled to begin operations in 2013, the 8.4-meter LSST will be able to survey the entire visible sky deeply in multiple colors every week with its three-billion pixel digital camera, probing the mysteries of Dark Matter and Dark Energy, and opening a movie-like window on objects that change or move rapidly: exploding supernovae, potentially hazardous near-Earth asteroids as small as 100 meters, and distant Kuiper Belt Objects. LSST is a public-private partnership.
More information about the LSST including current images, graphics, and animation can be found at https://www.lsst.org