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ATACAMA

ATACAMA. CCAT : The Cornell-Caltech Atacama Telescope. A joint project of Cornell University, the California Institute of Technology and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Guiding Principles Scientific Excellence Internal Synergy

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ATACAMA

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  1. ATACAMA CCAT : The Cornell-Caltech Atacama Telescope A joint project of Cornell University, the California Institute of Technology and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory

  2. Guiding Principles • Scientific Excellence • Internal Synergy • Special Niche/High Visibility • Ride the technology wave of large • format Bolometer Arrays • Synergy with (and enabler to) ALMA* *ALMA: an international telescope project, currently funded by the US (through the NSF and the National Radio Astronomy Observatory) and Europe (trough the European Southern Observatory). It will consist of an array of 64 antennas which will operate in Atacama at mm wavelengths. Cost: $750M Completion date: year 2012

  3. We propose: • A unique project geared towards the investigation • of cosmic origins, from planets to Cosmology, in the • IR/submm niche; • with focus that emphasizes our institutions’ • instrument building talents; • that can sensibly achieve first light by 2012; • that will maintains us in the forefront of research • in one of the most rapidly developing observational/ • technological fields; • that will provide us with strong leverage for • ALMA access/joint project development; • through a development strategy that will place us • to advantage on a pathway to a “high altitude • observatory”.

  4. The CCAT: • A 25m class FIR/submm telescope that will • operate with high aperture efficiency down • to l = 200 m, an atmospheric limit • With large format bolometer array cameras • (large Field of View > 15’) and high spectral • resolution heterodyne receivers • At a very high (elevation > 5000m), very dry • (Precipitable Water Vapor column PWV<1 mm) • site with wide sky coverage • NOT confusion-limited in exposures of • 24 hrs or less

  5. Science Areas: • Early Universe Cosmology • Galaxy Formation & Evolution • Disks, Star & Planet Forming Regions • Cosmic Microwave Background and the • Sunyaev-Zeldovich Effect • Solar System Astrophysics

  6. Why FIR/submm? Photospheric light Reprocessed by dust That’s the energy regime at which most of the Universe’s early light produced after the recombination era reaches us. And at which radiation produced in star & planet forming regions emerges from the dust cocoons. Photospheric light from stars Microwave Background

  7. How did we get from this: … and this? …to this: … and this

  8. starburst galaxies star formation rate normal galaxies gas density

  9. Starburst systems emit the vast majority of their light in the FIR

  10. 25 Arp220is a SB, merging system, forming stars at a rate of . (Stacey) By comparison, the Milky Way forms stars at the rate NOTE: at high z, the SED of a SB galaxy yields a neutral or even positive K-correction in the FIR bands .

  11. KBOs: trans-Neptunian objects probably formed early in the Outer reaches of the solar protoplanetary disk. Several hundreds known; Pluto (D~2400km), Charon (D~1200 km), Varuna (D~900km) are the largest. Optical/NIR observations yield orbital parms, flux – not size. At distances of 40-50 AU, KBOs have temperatures near 45 K, emitting most of their radiation in FIR. Pluto, Charon, Varuna & Chaor have been detected at 850 mm by JCMT, yielding sizes and albedos. In the RJ regime, the flux at the wavelength l is where D is the KBO diameter and D is its distance The measurement of S yields the size D and, in combination with optical/NIR measurements of the reflected light, the albedo and estimates of the surface properties. Problems: sensitivity and confusion

  12. CCAT can easily detect KBOs with D~150 km in few hours and, with sufficient integration, it can detect even smaller objects without becoming confused. Hundreds of thousands KBOs with D>100 km may exist: the AT could reveal the size function and surface properties of the KBO population. Serendipity: exposures of the kind required by primeval galaxy surveys may be able to detect ~ 1 KBO per frame.

  13. With CCAT, which will be the most sensitive FIR/submm telescope in the world SIRTF Herschel APEX JCMT ALMA CCAT LMT (Herter)

  14. In the highest, driest tropical region on Earth …

  15. At an elevation of ~17,000 ft a.m.s.l., in the Atacama region of Northern Chile, it will be the highest observatory on Earth. Cerro Negro?

  16. View from the Summit of Cerro Negro, to the North

  17. 2003 : Partnership established • Feb 2004: MOU signed by • Caltech, JPL and Cornell • Late 2004: Project Office established • and Study Phase initiated • Early 2006: Preliminary CDR • 2006-2008 Engineering Design Phase • and finalize Site Selection • 2008-2012 Construction and First Light

  18. Extra slides…

  19. The CCAT will detect SFR~10-30 up to a z ~ 3, and SFR~100 at all z

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