The Sixth Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey

Jennifer Adelman-McCarthy(Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory), Marcel A. Agüeros(Columbia University), S. Allam(University of Wyoming), Carlos Allende Prieto(The University of Texas at Austin), Kurt S. Anderson(New Mexico State University), Scott F. Anderson(University of Washington), James Annis(Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory), Neta A. Bahcall(Princeton University), C. A. L. Bailer‐Jones(Max Planck Institute for Astronomy), I. K. Baldry(Johns Hopkins University), John C. Barentine(The University of Texas at Austin), Bruce A. Bassett(University of Cape Town), A. C. Becker(University of Washington), Timothy C. Beers(Joint Institute for Nuclear Astrophysics), Eric F. Bell(Max Planck Institute for Astronomy), Andreas A. Berlind(New York University), Mariangela Bernardi(University of Pennsylvania), Michael R. Blanton(New York University), John J. Bochanski(University of Washington), William N. Boroski(Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory), J. Brinchmann(Centro de Astrofísica da Universidade do Porto), J. Brinkmann, Robert J. Brunner(University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign), Tamás Budavári(Johns Hopkins University), Samuel Carliles(Johns Hopkins University), Michael A. Carr(Princeton University), F. J. Castander(Institute of Space Sciences), David Cinabro(Wayne State University), R. J. Cool, Kevin R. Covey(Center for Astrophysics Harvard & Smithsonian), István Csabai(Eötvös Loránd University), Carlos E. Cunha(University of Chicago), James R. A. Davenport(University of Washington), B. Dilday(University of Chicago), Mamoru Doi(The University of Tokyo), Daniel J. Eisenstein, Michael L. Evans(University of Washington), Xiaohui Fan, Douglas P. Finkbeiner(Center for Astrophysics Harvard & Smithsonian), S. D. Friedman(Space Telescope Science Institute), Joshua A. Frieman(Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory), M. Fukugita(The University of Tokyo), B. T. Gänsicke(University of Warwick), Evalyn Gates(University of Chicago), Bruce Gillespie, Karl Glazebrook(Swinburne University of Technology), Jim Gray(Microsoft (United States)), E. K. Grebel(University of Basel), James E. Gunn(Princeton University), Vijay K. Gurbani(Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory), Patrick B. Hall(York University), Paul Harding(Case Western Reserve University), Michael Harvanek(Lowell Observatory), Suzanne L. Hawley(University of Washington), J. J. E. Hayes(Catholic University of America), Timothy M. Heckman(Johns Hopkins University), John S. Hendry(Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory), Robert B. Hindsley(United States Naval Research Laboratory), Christopher M. Hirata(Institute for Advanced Study), Craig J. Hogan(University of Washington), David W. Hogg(New York University), Joseph Hyde(University of Pennsylvania), Shinichi Ichikawa(National Astronomical Observatory of Japan), Željko Ivezić(University of Washington), Sebastian Jester(Max Planck Institute for Astronomy), Jennifer A. Johnson(The Ohio State University), A. M. Jorgensen(New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology), Mario Jurić(Institute for Advanced Study), S. Kent(Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory), R. Keßler(Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory), S. J. Kleinman(Gemini North Observatory), G. R. Knapp(Princeton University), R. G. Kron(Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory), J. Krzesiński(Uniwersytet Komisji Edukacji Narodowej w Krakowie), N. Kuropatkin(Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory), Donald Q. Lamb(Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory), Hubert Lampeitl(Space Telescope Science Institute), Svetlana Lebedeva(Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory), Young Sun Lee(Joint Institute for Nuclear Astrophysics), R. French Leger(Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory), Sébastien Lépine(American Museum of Natural History), M. Lima(University of Chicago), H. Lin(Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory), Daniel C. Long, Craig Loomis(Princeton University), J. Loveday(University of Sussex), Robert H. Lupton(Princeton University), O. Malanushenko, Viktor Malanushenko, Rachel Mandelbaum(Institute for Advanced Study), B. Margon(University of California, Santa Cruz), J. Marriner(Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory), David Martínez‐Delgado(Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias), Takahiko Matsubara(Nagoya University), P. McGehee(California Institute of Technology), Timothy A. McKay(University of Michigan), Avery Meiksin(Royal Observatory), Heather Morrison(Case Western Reserve University), Jeffrey A. Munn(United States Naval Observatory), Reiko Nakajima(University of Pennsylvania), Eric H. Neilsen(Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory), Heidi Jo Newberg(Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute), Robert C. Nichol(University of Portsmouth), Tom Nicinski(Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory), M. A. Nieto‐Santisteban(Johns Hopkins University), A. Nitta(Gemini North Observatory), Sadanori Okamura(The University of Tokyo), Russell Owen(University of Washington), Hiroaki Oyaizu(University of Chicago), Nikhil Padmanabhan(Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory), Kaike Pan, Changbom Park(Korea Institute for Advanced Study), J. Peoples(Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory), Jeffrey R. Pier(United States Naval Observatory), Adrian Pope, Norbert Purger(Eötvös Loránd University), M. Jordan Raddick(Johns Hopkins University), P. Re Fiorentin(Max Planck Institute for Astronomy), Gordon T. Richards(Drexel University), M. Richmond(Rochester Institute of Technology), Adam G. Riess(Johns Hopkins University), Hans‐Walter Rix(Max Planck Institute for Astronomy), Constance M. Rockosi(University of California, Santa Cruz), Masao Sako(Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology), David J. Schlegel(Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory), Donald P. Schneider(Pennsylvania State University), M. R. Schreiber(University of Valparaíso), A. Schwope(Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam), Uroš Seljak(Princeton University), Branimir Sesar(University of Washington), E. Sheldon(University of Chicago), K. Shimasaku(The University of Tokyo), T. Sivarani(Joint Institute for Nuclear Astrophysics), J. A. Smith(Austin Peay State University), Stephanie A. Snedden, Matthias Steinmetz(Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam), Michael A. Strauss(Princeton University), Mark SubbaRao(Adler Planetarium), Yasushi Suto(The University of Tokyo), Alexander S. Szalay(Johns Hopkins University), István Szapudi, Paula Szkody(University of Washington), Max Tegmark(Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Aniruddha R. Thakar(Johns Hopkins University), Christy Tremonti, D. L. Tucker(Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory), Alan Uomoto(Carnegie Observatories), D. E. vanden Berk(Pennsylvania State University), Jan Vandenberg(Johns Hopkins University), S. Vidrih(University of Cambridge), Michael S. Vogeley(Drexel University), W. Voges(Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics), Nicole P. Vogt(New Mexico State University), Yogesh Wadadekar(Princeton University), David H. Weinberg(The Ohio State University), Andrew A. West, Simon D. M. White(Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics), Brian C. Wilhite(University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign), B. Yanny(Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory), D. R. Yocum(Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory), Donald G. York(Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory), Idit Zehavi(Case Western Reserve University), D. B. Zucker(University of Cambridge)
The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series
March 24, 2008
10.1086/524984
Cited by 1,497Open Access
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Abstract

This paper describes the Sixth Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. With this data release, the imaging of the northern Galactic cap is now complete. The survey contains images and parameters of roughly 287 million objects over 9583 deg², including scans over a large range of Galactic latitudes and longitudes. The survey also includes 1.27 million spectra of stars, galaxies, quasars, and blank sky (for sky subtraction) selected over 7425 deg². This release includes much more stellar spectroscopy than was available in previous data releases and also includes detailed estimates of stellar temperatures, gravities, and metallicities. The results of improved photometric calibration are now available, with uncertainties of roughly 1% in g, r, i, and z, and 2% in u, substantially better than the uncertainties in previous data releases. The spectra in this data release have improved wavelength and flux calibration, especially in the extreme blue and extreme red, leading to the qualitatively better determination of stellar types and radial velocities. The spectrophotometric fluxes are now tied to point-spread function magnitudes of stars rather than fiber magnitudes. This gives more robust results in the presence of seeing variations, but also implies a change in the spectrophotometric scale, which is now brighter by roughly 0.35 mag. Systematic errors in the velocity dispersions of galaxies have been fixed, and the results of two independent codes for determining spectral classifications and redshifts are made available. Additional spectral outputs are made available, including calibrated spectra from individual 15 minute exposures and the sky spectrum subtracted from each exposure. We also quantify a recently recognized underestimation of the brightnesses of galaxies of large angular extent due to poor sky subtraction; the bias can exceed 0.2 mag for galaxies brighter than r = 14 mag.

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