PanSTARRS

Pan-STARRS, short for Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System, is an astronomical imaging facility designed for wide-field sky surveys and rapid follow-up of transient events. It is operated by the Institute for Astronomy of the University of Hawaii and is located at the Haleakalā Observatory on the island of Maui, Hawaii. The system is built around two identical 1.8-meter Ritchey–Chrétien telescopes, equipped with a large mosaic digital camera known as GPC1 that — with about 1.4 billion pixels — enables high-cadence imaging over large sky areas.

Pan-STARRS1 (PS1) uses a five-filter set (g, r, i, z, y) to image the sky. PS1 has conducted wide-field surveys, including the 3π Steradian Survey, covering most of the sky visible from Hawaii north of roughly -30 degrees, enabling a broad program of time-domain astronomy.

Science goals include discovering and tracking near-Earth objects and potentially hazardous asteroids; surveying for comets and remote solar-system bodies; and monitoring transient phenomena such as supernovae, variable stars, and moving objects. The data have supported thousands of publications and served as a foundation for future surveys.

First light occurred around 2007, with the PS1 camera and survey operations expanding in the early 2010s; Pan-STARRS continues to operate as a major facility in time-domain astronomy.