At seven stories tall and a main mirror 32 ½ feet across, it's a big telescope by anyone's estimation. Situated at the south pole, the aptly named South Pole Telescope is on a mission searching for the most powerful, plentiful but elusive substance in the universe — dark energy. Dark energy is a mysterious force so powerful that it has already overruled the laws of gravity, it is pushing galaxies away from one another, causing the universe to expand at an ever faster rate. Though dark energy is believed to account for 70 percent of the mass of the universe, it is invisible and virtually undetectable. Nobody knows what it is, where it is or how it behaves. The South Pole Telescope has begun to search the southern polar heavens for evidence of the elusive stuff. Controlled remotely from the University of Chicago, the $19.2 million telescope has quickly succeeded in its first mission: finding unknown galaxy clusters, clues to the emergence of dark energy.
Click here for a description of the construction of this amazing scope and the science it hopes to complete.
Wikipedia article on the telescope
article from Pantagraph.com
Click here for a description of the construction of this amazing scope and the science it hopes to complete.
Wikipedia article on the telescope
article from Pantagraph.com
2 comments:
I hope they designed this telescope accounting for the weather. Good location, though. High altitude, no city lights for thousands of miles. You gotta love it...
Robert M Blevins
Bob is that mount rainier in the background? lucky basturd! Great shot....
Yes, my understanding of the construction is one of aluminum and carbonfiber. Since there is no human operators, there is no building. Since it is a microwave antenna there is no worries about light pollution. I think the placement was more where they wanted to look and of course limiting interference.
Post a Comment