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Largest sub-mm telescope in 2013

Article Abstract by: pradeep2007    

Original Author: Harish mudaliar

Largest sub-mm telescope in 2013
Five North American and one European institution have created a consortium
to oversee the building of the 25-meter sub-millimeter telescope on a high elevation in Chile.
Upon completion in 2013, the 100 million dollar instrument, part of the project formally known as the Cornell Caltech Atacama Telescope (CCAT), and located at an 18,400-foot altitude atop Cerro Chajnantor in Chile''s Atacama Desert, will be the premier telescope of its kind in the world.
According to deputy project manager Simon Radford, the telescope will employ recent advances in technology that will provide unprecedented views of astronomical phenomena that cannot be studied at other wavelengths.
Sub-millimeter-wavelength astronomy is especially effective for imaging phenomena that do not emit much visible light, and the CCAT will allow for observation of stars and planets forming from swirling disks of gas and dust.
It will make measurements to determine the composition of the molecular clouds from which the stars are born, and could even discover large numbers of galaxies undergoing huge bursts of star formation in the very distant universe.
The team of scientists involved in the project say, the telescope could also be used to study the origin of large-scale structure in the universe.
According to the scientists, the advantages of the new telescope, in addition to technological advances in instrumentation and the dry sky of the Atacama region (high altitude and dry conditions are important for sub-millimeter research, which is hampered by moisture in the air), will also include a larger and more accurate mirror.
Twenty percent of the projected cost will go towards the state-of-the-art instrumentation, in particular, large sub-millimeter cameras, which will complement the huge size of the dish.
At 25 meters, it will have more than twice the area of the largest sub-millimeter telescope currently in existence, the Caltech Sub-millimeter Observatory (CSO) on Mauna Kea, Hawaii, and depending on the exact wavelength, will provide six to 12 times its light-gathering ability.
Also, the larger diameter and better surface will result in much sharper images of the sky, they say.
"CCAT will be a particularly important complement to ALMA (Atacama Large Millimeter Array, also located in northern Chile). CCAT will enable consortium scientists to make optimal use of ALMA''s sub-millimeter capabilities to address fundamental questions about star and galaxy formation," said Caltech astronomy professor Anneila Sargent, director of CARMA and chair of the interim CCAT board.
The consortium members are the California Institute of Technology and its Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Cornell University, the University of Colorado at Boulder, the University of British Columbia, and the United Kingdom Astronomy Technology Centre, which is part of the Science and Technology Facilities Council.
Published: July 29, 2007
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