The Sloan Digital Sky Survey

Astronomy is about to undergo a major paradigm shift, with data sets becoming larger and more homogeneous, designed for the first time in a top-down fashion. The paper discusses the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. By digitally mapping half of the northern sky, this project promises to radically improve the way scientists do astronomy. In putting a digital sky on the desktops of astronomers, the SDSS could well lead to major new discoveries.