Atacama Cosmology Telescope

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Telescope
Atacama Cosmology Telescope
Atacama cosmology telescope toco.jpg
Type Radio telescope
Location San Pedro de Atacama , Northern Chile

height 5190 m
Geographic coordinates 22 ° 57 ′ 31 ″  S , 67 ° 47 ′ 15 ″  W Coordinates: 22 ° 57 ′ 31 ″  S , 67 ° 47 ′ 15 ″  W
wavelength 2027 µm, 1376 µm and 1083 µm
Aperture 6 m

The Atacama Cosmology Telescope ACT is a radio telescope for studying the cosmic microwave background (CMB).

View from the slope of Cerro Toco

ACT is a 6 m telescope at an altitude of 5148 m on Cerro Toco in the Atacama Desert in northern Chile. The telescope and instrumentation are designed for investigating the irregularities of the cosmic microwave background and for discovering galaxy clusters through their local change in the microwave background caused by the Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect . Together with follow-up observations, the discovery of many galaxy clusters could contribute to an understanding of the structural evolution in the universe and of dark energy .

A first test receiver went into operation in June 2007 and the telescope saw first light on October 22, 2007 . The main instrument is a bolometer (millimeter bolometer Array Camera, MBAC) with novel superconducting transition edge sensor for three frequencies between 145 GHz and 280 GHz. ACT is jointly built and operated by 17 institutions from the USA (including Princeton University ), Canada, Mexico, Chile, South Africa and Great Britain and is funded mainly by the National Science Foundation . The telescope was built by Dynamic Structures in Vancouver.

The CMB is measured with a resolution of a millionth of a degree and an angular resolution in the arc-minute range.

ACT 2007 under construction

First results were published in 2010 and gravitational lensing effects were observed and first indications of dark energy from the CMB alone.

The South Pole Telescope , which also saw first light in 2007, has similar goals .

literature

Web link

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ With a second 2-meter mirror. Both mirrors are segmented .
  2. ^ The ACT Collaboration; Fowler; Acquaviva; Goodbye; Aguirre; Amiri; Apple; Barrientos et al. "The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: A Measurement of the 600 <ell <8000 Cosmic Microwave Background Power Spectrum at 148 GHz", Astrophysical Journal, Volume 722, 2010, pp. 1148-1161
  3. ^ The ACT Collaboration; The; Sherwin; Aguirre; Apple; Bond; Carvalho; Devlin et al., The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: Detection of the Power Spectrum of Gravitational Lensing , 2011
  4. ^ The ACT Collaboration; Sherwin; Dunkley; The; Apple; Bond; Carvalho; Devlin et al., The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: Evidence for Dark Energy from the CMB Alone , 2011