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Well, I think it's an inherent human characteristic
to want to know where we come from.
Astronomy answers the bigger picture,
the ultimate questions, where is our place in the universe?
I think astronomers would like to think that we're really
gaining a lot of understanding about our universe,
but really, only understand about 5%.
The galaxy is a very dusty place.
And this inhibits our ability to see clearly across the galaxy
when we use normal optical light.
What we've done is we've actually
taken advantage of the fact that the dust does not
block infrared light.
So apogee is exploring the galaxy
at infrared wavelengths, wavelengths
that are longer than our eyes can actually detect.
The apogee instrument itself receives the light that is
garnered at the back end of very wide field telescopes.
The light comes into our instrument
and it's divided by wavelength, if you will.
And then we use fiber optic cables
to channel the star light into apogee,
from which we can analyze the chemical properties of the star
and how it's moving.
In the northern hemisphere, we only
get half a view of our galaxies, where
we've built a twin instrument for a telescope in Chile.
So while the University of Virginia led the project
and we integrated the instrument here,
it required the collaboration of scientists and engineers
from across the world.
What apogee is allowing us to do for the first time is make
a comprehensive map of our galaxy, all the way from one
edge to the other.
But I'm hoping that with apogee, with all
of this data that we're coming up
with, some of the most important things that is discovered
is stuff that we haven't anticipated.
Where is the most likely place that we can form
planets that could harbor life?
How do the chemical properties of the stars
impact the formation of planets around them?
So these are very big questions.
And I think apogee has a long career ahead of it, getting
to those kinds of questions.
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