New sustainable telescope to take the 'molecular fingerprint' of galaxies

15 Apr 2020 02:59 PM

A design study for a ground-breaking new radio telescope, which will be the first of its kind to be powered sustainably – is about to get underway. The work has been approved by The European Commission, through its Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. It involves an international consortium of partners, led by the University of Oslo, with scientists at the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC)’s UK Astronomy Technology Centre (UK ATC) in Edinburgh, taking a leading role in defining the scientific goals for the telescope.

The Atacama Large-Aperture Submillimeter Telescope or AtLAST, for short, could provide astronomers with everything from a comprehensive catalogue of the chemicals that make up the atmospheres around planets, to the constituents of galaxies in the earliest Universe – taking a ‘molecular fingerprint’ of galaxies, including our own. This ground-breaking new telescope will be fully powered by renewable energy sources, and could be operational in the 2030s.

“AtLAST will be a single dish submillimeter telescope, measuring 50m in diameter – enabling new discoveries that cannot be achieved with any current or planned astronomical facilities. It will also be an important complement to the state-of-the-art radio telescope – the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), which is positioned 5000 metres up on the Chajnantor Plateau in the Chilean Andes,” explains Dr Claudia Cicone, Associate Professor of Astrophysics and study lead, University of Oslo.

"ALMA is one of the world’s largest ground-based telescope – made up of 66 high-precision antennas (which look like giant satellite dishes). It collects light from some of the coldest objects in the Universe at wavelengths of around a millimetre. Known as millimetre (mm) and submillimetre (sub-mm) waves, these sit between infrared and radio waves in the electromagnetic spectrum. At these wavelengths astronomers can probe the very first stars in the earliest galaxies, and directly image the formation of planets.”

Dr Pamela Klaassen, Project Scientist, UK ATC says “ALMA is what is called an interferometer – each of the 66 antennas, works together to create a single giant telescope.

“However, the speed that ALMA can map large areas of the sky is limited.

“With a 50m diameter, AtLAST will have a much larger field of view, and will be able to survey the sky quickly and efficiently, identifying trends, and finding interesting targets for ALMA to follow-up, at high resolution.

“AtLAST will be able to detect Milky Way type galaxies at the highest redshifts (a term that describes how astronomers observe the earliest galaxies in our expanding Universe); study the relationship between galaxies and their surroundings; and even take the temperature of our Galaxy.

“I’m really looking forward to working with the UK and international submillimeter astronomy community to shape the key science cases for this telescope”, concludes Dr Klaassen.

Six working groups will now consider different aspects of the design requirements for this new sustainable telescope. Work streams include: determining the science goals; the overall design of the telescope; how to power the observatory by using exclusively renewable energy; where, close to ALMA, the telescope will be positioned; as well as defining the operations and making a long-term plan for the financial and governmental structure of AtLAST.

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