The Cerro Chajnantor Atacama Telescope (CCAT) is a proposed diameter telescope that is intended to reveal the cosmic origins of stars, planets, and galaxies with its

submillimeter Submillimetre astronomy or submillimeter astronomy (see spelling differences) is the branch of observational astronomy that is conducted at submillimetre wavelengths (i.e., terahertz radiation) of the electromagnetic spectrum. Astronomers plac ...

cameras and spectrometers enabled by

superconducting Superconductivity is a set of physical properties observed in superconductors: materials where electrical resistance vanishes and magnetic fields are expelled from the material. Unlike an ordinary metallic conductor, whose resistance decreases g ...

detector arrays. The telescope was originally called the Cornell Caltech Atacama Telescope, but due to lack of funding the 25 metre telescope is currently on hold. The collaboration is building a smaller diameter submillimeter/millimeter telescope, CCAT-prime, as a first step before pursuing the 25 metre CCAT at some (unknown) time in the future. CCAT-prime is based on a high optical throughput

Crossed Dragone The Crossed Dragone Telescope is an off-axis telescope design consisting of a parabolic primary mirror and a large concave secondary mirror arranged so that the focal plane is at right angles to the incoming light. In this configuration the polari ...

optical design, and the

Simons Observatory The Simons Observatory is located in the high Atacama Desert in Northern Chile inside the Chajnator Science Preserve, at an altitude of 5,200 meters (17,000 ft). The Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) and the Simons Array were located nearby ...

large aperture telescope uses the same optical design. CCAT-prime will be located at the same site and share similar mission as the full sized CCAT, but naturally with reduced angular resolution compared to the 25 metre CCAT. On September 14, 2020, the CCAT-prime telescope was renamed to be the Fred Young Submillimeter Telescope (FYST) after Fred Young, a Cornell alumnus who has supported the telescope for about two decades with over US$16 million.

Site

The planned site is at an altitude of , on Cerro Chajnantor mountain/summit of the volcanic Purico Complex, in the

Atacama Desert The Atacama Desert () is a desert plateau located on the Pacific Ocean, Pacific coast of South America, in the north of Chile. Stretching over a strip of land west of the Andes Mountains, it covers an area of , which increases to if the barre ...

of northern

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

. FYST will be one of the highest permanent, ground-based telescopes in the world. The University of Tokyo Atacama Observatory is located slightly above the proposed telescope location on the same peak.

Description

The CCAT consortium participating in the project includes:

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

University of Cologne The University of Cologne () is a university in Cologne, Germany. It was established in 1388. It closed in 1798 before being re-established in 1919. It is now one of the largest universities in Germany with around 45,187 students. The Universit ...

University of Bonn The University of Bonn, officially the Rhenish Friedrich Wilhelm University of Bonn (), is a public research university in Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was founded in its present form as the () on 18 October 1818 by Frederick Willi ...

University of Waterloo The University of Waterloo (UWaterloo, UW, or Waterloo) is a Public university, public research university located in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is on of land adjacent to uptown Waterloo and Waterloo Park. The university also op ...

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a Public university, public research university with campuses near University of British Columbia Vancouver, Vancouver and University of British Columbia Okanagan, Kelowna, in British Columbia, Canada ...

, and other institutions in Germany and Canada. The telescope is intended to complement the

Atacama Large Millimeter Array The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) is an astronomical interferometer of 66 radio telescopes in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile, which observe electromagnetic radiation at millimeter and submillimeter wavelengths. The ar ...

(ALMA), by discovering new sources that ALMA will follow up with highly detailed imagery. The FYST telescope is to be outfitted with a wide-field camera called Prime-Cam that is expected to map the sky many times faster than previous submillimeter instruments, including SCUBA-2 camera installed on the

James Clerk Maxwell Telescope The James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) is a submillimetre-wavelength radio telescope at Mauna Kea Observatory in Hawaii, US. The telescope is near the summit of Mauna Kea at . Its primary mirror is 15 metres (16.4 yards) across: it is the la ...

in Hawaii.Renata D'Aliesi
Astronomers hope telescope unlocks secrets of universe
''

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Newspapers in Canada, Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in Western Canada, western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of more than 6 million in 2024, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on week ...

'' 28 March 2011 The submillimeter and millimeter wavelength light that FYST will measure is a type of microwave radiation that is closest to

infrared Infrared (IR; sometimes called infrared light) is electromagnetic radiation (EMR) with wavelengths longer than that of visible light but shorter than microwaves. The infrared spectral band begins with the waves that are just longer than those ...

in the light spectrum. These measurements will enable astronomers to learn more about the

Milky Way The Milky Way or Milky Way Galaxy is the galaxy that includes the Solar System, with the name describing the #Appearance, galaxy's appearance from Earth: a hazy band of light seen in the night sky formed from stars in other arms of the galax ...

, local galaxies,

Epoch of Reionization In the fields of Big Bang theory and cosmology, reionization is the process that caused electrically neutral atoms in the primordial universe to reionize after the lapse of the " dark ages". Detecting and studying the reionization process is ch ...

, and

Cosmology Cosmology () is a branch of physics and metaphysics dealing with the nature of the universe, the cosmos. The term ''cosmology'' was first used in English in 1656 in Thomas Blount's ''Glossographia'', with the meaning of "a speaking of the wo ...

Construction

In January 2014 the Chilean government granted the use of land on Cerro Chajnantor to the CCAT consortium for the telescope and the road to the mountain summit. Also in January 2014, the Atacama Astronomy Park was inaugurated by the Chilean government, to coordinate activities between the current and upcoming observatories in the Chajnantor region. The 6 metre CCAT-prime telescope construction started 2017 (signing of construction contract) with first light expected in 2026. The fabrication of telescope components started late 2018.

References

{{Portal bar, Chile, Astronomy, Stars, Spaceflight, Outer space, Solar System, Education, Science Astronomical observatories in Chile Submillimetre telescopes Atacama Desert Proposed buildings and structures in Chile Buildings and structures in Antofagasta Region

Site

Description

Construction

See also

References