Download DV Briefing, J. Marty

Astronomy in Antarctica
General Assembly
International Astronomical Union
Sydney, Australia, July 18, 2003
Ferraro Choi Associates LTD
South Pole
Astrophysical
Observatory
Research Activities
Vladimir Papitashvili and Dennis Peacock
Office of Polar Programs
National Science Foundation
U.S.A.
[email protected]
National Science Foundation
dpeacock@(retired May 30)
Office of Polar Programs
United States Antarctic Program
Astronomy at South Pole
Historical Perspective
Ferraro Choi Associates LTD
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Paul Siple – Astronomical observatory, 1956
Martin Pomerantz - Cosmic rays monitor, 1957 - present
… with Arny Wyller – 5” optical telescope, 1968-1969
… 1st astronomy proposal to NSF, 1970 (declined)
… 1st funded project – 6” optical telescope, 1978-1979
… with Eric Fossat – Polar Solar Observatory, 1979-1980
… and Helioseismology at “Pomerantz Land”, 1981-1984
… with Mark Dragovan, Tony Stark, and Bob Pernic, 1987
Debut of Polar Cosmology: 1-m parabolic, upward
looking telescope with two bolometers at 0.3 K
Martin Pomerantz, Astronomy on Ice (yet unpublished memoir):
“My efforts over many years, from 1970 to 1987 to get the
ball rolling throughout the astronomical community had
finally succeeded.”
National Science Foundation
Office of Polar Programs
United States Antarctic Program
Science at South Pole
Ferraro Choi Associates LTD
Astrophysics
and Cosmology
9 projects
Meteorology and
Climatology
5 projects
Dark Sector
Clean Air Sector
Aeronomy
and STP
12 projects
Geophysics and
Glaciology
4 projects
National Science Foundation
Office of Polar Programs
Quiet
Sector
United States Antarctic Program
Astrophysics and Cosmology
Dark Sector
Ferraro Choi Associates LTD
• Radio telescopes – to investigate formation
and evolution of the early Universe, to study
interstellar space and galaxies, and to discover
star and galaxy formation regions
2004-2009
10 m
2007
• Neutrino telescope – an array of photo
detectors frozen in the ice - to detect highenergy cosmic neutrinos from deep space
National Science Foundation
Office of Polar Programs
United States Antarctic Program
Ferraro Choi Associates LTD
South Pole Infrared Explorer
SPIREX, 0.6-m, 1-5 m wide-field
survey of star formation in Milky Way
and Magellanic Clouds
National Science Foundation
Office of Polar Programs
United States Antarctic Program
Antarctic Submillimeter
Telescope / Remote
Observatory – 1.7-m
survey instrument to study
Milky Way and other galaxies
Ferraro Choi Associates LTD
AASTO
Antarctic Automatic Site
Testing Observatory – to
study unique properties of
South Pole atmosphere:
- high-altitude (9300 ft)
- cold, low turbulence
- dry, very low water vapor
National Science Foundation
AST/RO
Office of Polar Programs
United States Antarctic Program
• Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) anisotropy with 0.75-m Python
telescope and then with Degree Angular Scale Interferometer (DASI)
• Small-scale CMD anisotropy with Arcminute Cosmology Bolometer
Array (ACBAR)
• Galactic magnetic fields with Submillimeter Polarimeter for Antarctic
Ferraro Choi Associates LTD
Observations (SPARO)
Python
(1992-1997)
DASI
(since 2000)
Martin A. Pomerantz Observatory (1994)
National Science Foundation
Office of Polar Programs
Viper
telescope:
ACBAR
SPARO
United States Antarctic Program
CMB Study Results
Temperature variations (µK)
(inflationary model and data)
Ferraro Choi Associates LTD
ACBAR
High moment peaks in
CMB power spectrum
BOOMERanG
CMB Sky
National Science Foundation
DASI
CMB power
spectrum and
polarization
Office of Polar Programs
United States Antarctic Program
Ferraro Choi Associates LTD
Education and Outreach
South Pole telescopes
make a wonderful hook:
Captivating science and
the lure of Antarctica!
SPT is coupled to national
network to increase the
contact between research
scientists, educators and
students.
National Science Foundation
Office of Polar Programs
United States Antarctic Program
South Pole Telescope
PI: John Carlstrom, U. Chicago
• To study CMB polarization and
Following recommendations from
SZ effect in galaxy clusters
NRC’s Astronomy & Astrophysics
Decadal Report, NSF has recently • To test and constrain various
cosmological models
funded a new project to build at
• To search for Dark Energy and
South Pole a 10m-class
Dark Matter
telescope:
Ferraro Choi Associates LTD
Guards
Telescop
e Access
SPT– FY07
Heated
Section
National Science Foundation
Telescop
e
Support
Building
New Dark Sector Laboratory – FY04
Office of Polar Programs
United States Antarctic Program
Other Cosmology and
Astrophysics Projects
Ferraro Choi Associates LTD
Background Imaging of Cosmic Extragalactic
Polarization (BICEP) – to detect signatures of
gravity waves in CMB for experimental testing of
Inflation (funded - Andrew Lange, Bill Holzapfel)
Future potential projects for Antarctic Plateau:
AIRO: The Antarctic Infrared Observatory (Jim
Jackson, Boston University)  Wide-field surveys
of brown dwarfs and star-forming regions
API: Antarctic Planet Interferometer (Mark Swain,
JPL/Univ. of Arizona)  A concept designed to
detect and characterize Earth-like extrasolar
planets
National Science Foundation
Office of Polar Programs
United States Antarctic Program
Relevant Projects
at South Pole
Helioseismology
Extrasolar Planets Search
Ferraro Choi Associates LTD
One month of observations at South
Pole gives the same discovery rate as
three months of observations at
middle latitudes
PI: Doug Caldwell, SETI
Solar Telescope - to study
acoustic waves and speed of
sound in Sun’s atmosphere
PI: Stuart Jefferies, UNM
National Science Foundation
Office of Polar Programs
United States Antarctic Program
Particle Astrophysics
at South Pole
Ferraro Choi Associates LTD
Neutrino telescopes look through
the Earth to understand how
Nature can accelerate particles
to very high energies
2000
Zenith 155.3
Azimuth 264.6
1997-10-12
Event
Feeble interaction with matter
makes neutrinos ideal astromessengers allowing to study
highly energetic cosmical events
National Science Foundation
Office of Polar Programs
United States Antarctic Program
AMANDA
Ferraro Choi Associates LTD
and
Antarctic Muon And
Neutrino Detector Array
PI: Bob Morse
IceCube
A new neutrino
detector array of 1-km3 scale
PI: Francis Halzen
University of Wisconsin
1014-1018 eV
IceCube
AMANDA
Hot Water
Drilling
AMANDA
107-1016 eV
FY04 Hot Water Drill --> South Pole
FY05 Drilling first 6 holes, deploying DOMs
FY06 – FY09 Full construction of IceCube
National Science Foundation
80 strings
Office of Polar Programs
4800 sensors
United States Antarctic Program
IceCube
Ferraro Choi Associates LTD
A Kilometer-Scale
Neutrino Observatory
• Detects neutrinos as cosmic messengers at
energies where Universe becomes opaque to light
• A kilometer-scale is dictated by observed highenergy gamma ray bursts and cosmic ray fluxes
• Will be able to detects neutrinos of energies from
107 eV to bursts 1016 eV
• Will allow black hole diagnostics with neutrinos
• Will extend the distances accessible to neutrino
astronomy by five orders of magnitude
National Science Foundation
Office of Polar Programs
United States Antarctic Program
Long-Duration Ballooning
from McMurdo
Ferraro Choi Associates LTD
BOOMERanG
1998-99 and 2002-03
Balloon Observations
Of Millimetric
Extragalactic Radiation
and Geophysics
National Science Foundation
Office of Polar Programs
ATIC
Advanced Thin Ionization
Calorimeter
2002-03
United States Antarctic Program
FY04 Proposed
Astrophysics Projects
Ferraro Choi Associates LTD
Next Generation CMB Polarization Measurements
South Pole Polarization Telescope
The Primeval Structures Telescope
Earthshine from the South Pole
Wide-Field Imaging Spectroscopy in the Submillimeter
Tomographic Imaging of the Velocity and Magnetic
Fields in the Sun's Atmosphere
Determination of Atmospheric Density, and
Temperature Profiles using X-ray Source Occultation
Middle Atmosphere Dynamics by Sub-Millimeter
Radiometry
National Science Foundation
Office of Polar Programs
United States Antarctic Program
Antarctic Astronomy and
Astrophysics
Ferraro Choi Associates LTD
South Pole and Concordia should
become world-class, complementary
facilities
Astrophysics
at Concordia?
Scientist should collaborate at both
stations, jointly attacking most
outstanding problems of Astronomy,
Astrophysics, and Polar Cosmology
Astrophysics at South Pole
National Science Foundation
Office of Polar Programs
United States Antarctic Program