[media-credit name=’BRYAN FAUST/Herald Photo’ align=’alignnone’ width=’648′][/media-credit]A $5 million Prime Focus Imaging Spectrograph (PFIS), capable of viewing distant galaxies and stars, was presented Friday by the University of Wisconsin’s Space Astronomy Laboratory.

Beginning next month, the spectrograph will serve as the uppermost component to the biggest telescope in the southern hemisphere, named the Southern African Large Telescope (SALT).

UW professor of astronomy and original conceiver of PFIS Kenneth Nordsieck said scientists have an understanding of the condition of the world half a billion years after its start and said he hopes SALT will permit observations twice as far back.

“SALT will be used as a direct detector of history — as a time machine,” Nordsieck said. “With a very large telescope, you can look at great big objects at the very beginning of the history of the universe.”

PFIS is the result of five years of efforts by UW professors and researchers. The 10 by six foot PFIS will receive and analyze light from 10 stories high in the $18 million SALT observatory, which is located in an isolated area outside of Sutherland, South Africa.

According to the SALT website, the telescope will be capable of gathering light the size of a candle flame on the moon.

Jay Gallagher, UW professor of astronomy, said the educational possibilities of SALT are endless.

“We want to find out the first time planets are likely to be forming in other galaxies, the history of chemical elements and contribute to the understanding of the shape of space,” Gallagher said.

UW professor of astronomy Matt Bershady said SALT will provide educational opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students and will unite the teachers, students, and research of culturally and physically diverse partners.

UW astronomy students in the future will view the southern hemisphere skies via an Internet feed from SALT. UW students who are in class at noon will be able to watch the stars and galaxies of South Africa because of the eight-hour time difference, according to Nordsieck.

“I think it’s wonderful that UW can play a large role in one of the most important projects in modern astrophysics research,” Jon Wohl, UW junior astrophysics major said. “I am excited to see what discoveries our university will be a part of in the upcoming years.”

The UW astronomy department prides itself on its strong history of contributions to the knowledge of space. The department created one of the original instruments for NASA’s Hubble space telescope.

“SALT is the harbinger of greater things to come at this University and even larger telescopes in the future,” Bershady said. “Another key part of [SALT] is our contribution to this telescope.”

SALT is part of a worldwide collaboration of a dozen academic and government establishments including New Zealand, Poland, Germany, Africa and the United States. These groups work for the advancement of astronomy by studying the southern heavens.

SALT will release its first data in November of this year.