SDSS-III Data Release 10

The Sloan Digital Sky Survey III announces its tenth public data release (DR10).

This release features the first data from a brand-new infrared instrument for SDSS. The Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE) is a 300-fiber, R ~ 22,500 spectrograph covering the wavelength range from 1.5 to 1.7 microns. APOGEE is being used to observe stars in our galaxy to reconstruct the assembly history of the Milky Way through detailed measurements of stellar parameters, elemental abundances, and radial velocities.

DR10 also includes an additional year of data from the ongoing SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS). BOSS has now obtained spectra for almost 1.4 million objects, including 860,000 galaxies and 105,000 quasars from 2 < z < 3.5, as part of its quest to measure the positions of 1.5 million massive galaxies over the past 6 billion years of cosmic time. BOSS is also observing 160,000 quasars from 2.15 < z < 3.5 to measure the Lyman-alpha forest at these epochs in addition to studies of quasars and absorption-line systems.

The next SDSS-III data release will be at the end of 2014.