South Pole Telescope Completed

Landmark Completion of South Pole Telescope

Posted: February 27, 2007

Courtesy: National Science Foundation

Just days before nations around the world were set to begin a coordinated global research campaign called the International Polar Year (IPY); scientists at the South Pole aimed a massive new telescope at Jupiter and successfully collected the instrument's first test observations.

Soon, a far more distant quarry will enter the South Pole telescope's (SPT) sights, as a team of researchers from nine institutions tackles fundamental mysteries of modern cosmology and the nature of the universe: What, for example, is dark energy, the force that dominates the universe?

The $19.2 million telescope is funded primarily by the National Science Foundation (NSF), with additional support from the Kavli Foundation of Oxnard, Calif., and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation of San Francisco.

"The telescope, camera and optics are all working as designed," said John Carlstrom, the S. Chandrasekhar distinguished service professor in astronomy and astrophysics at the University of Chicago, who heads the SPT team that tested the scope on Feb. 26. "SPT's first light is a major milestone for the project and a fitting conclusion to a remarkably productive summer at the South Pole station. We now look forward to fully characterizing the instrument and beginning cosmological observations."

Source | www.antarcticconnection.com... .shtml

Hope this hasn't been posted already. So this telescope is da bomb, and sits in a great location for star gazing. I wonder when we will start to see images taken by this thing.

[edit on 4/26/2007 by damajikninja]

Another way for the human eye to scan the Universe.

It's always nice to see a new instrument come on line, it can only help expand our knowledge of what is out there.