Atacama Cosmology Telescope

Atacama Cosmology Telescope
The Atacama Cosmology Telescope, with Cerro Toco in the background
Alternative namesACTpol Edit this at Wikidata
Part ofLlano de Chajnantor Observatory Edit this on Wikidata
Location(s)Atacama Desert
Coordinates22°57′31″S 67°47′15″W / 22.9586°S 67.7875°W / -22.9586; -67.7875 Edit this at Wikidata
Wavelength28, 41, 90, 150, 220 GHz (1.07, 0.73, 0.33, 0.20, 0.14 cm)
First light22 October 2007 Edit this on Wikidata
Telescope stylecosmic microwave background experiment
radio telescope Edit this on Wikidata
Diameter6 meter
Websiteact.princeton.edu Edit this at Wikidata
Atacama Cosmology Telescope is located in Chile
Atacama Cosmology Telescope
Location of Atacama Cosmology Telescope
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The Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) was a cosmological millimeter-wave telescope located on Cerro Toco in the Atacama Desert in the north of Chile.[1] ACT made high-sensitivity, arcminute resolution, microwave-wavelength surveys of the sky in order to study the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB), the relic radiation left by the Big Bang process. Located 40 km from San Pedro de Atacama, at an altitude of 5,190 metres (17,030 ft), it was one of the highest ground-based telescopes in the world.[a]

Cosmic microwave background experiments like ACT, the South Pole Telescope, the WMAP satellite, and the Planck satellite have provided foundational evidence for the standard Lambda-CDM model of cosmology. ACT first detected seven acoustic peaks in the power spectrum of the CMB, discovered the most extreme galaxy cluster and made the first statistical detection of the motions of clusters of galaxies via the pairwise kinematic Sunyaev-Zeldovich Effect.[3]

ACT was built in 2007 and saw first light in October 2007 with its first receiver, the Millimeter Bolometer Array Camera (MBAC). ACT had two major receiver upgrades which enabled polarization sensitive observations: ACTPol[4] (2013–2016) and Advanced ACT[5] (2017–2022). ACT observations ended in mid-2022. ACT is funded by the US National Science Foundation.

  1. ^ Fowler, J. W.; Niemack, M. D.; Dicker, S. R.; Aboobaker, A. M.; Ade, P. A. R.; Battistelli, E. S.; Devlin, M. J.; Fisher, R. P.; Halpern, M.; Hargrave, P. C.; Hincks, A. D. (10 June 2007). "Optical design of the Atacama Cosmology Telescope and the Millimeter Bolometric Array Camera". Applied Optics. 46 (17): 3444–3454. arXiv:astro-ph/0701020. Bibcode:2007ApOpt..46.3444F. doi:10.1364/AO.46.003444. ISSN 0003-6935. PMID 17514303. S2CID 10833374.
  2. ^ Marrone; et al. (2005). "Observations in the 1.3 and 1.5 THz Atmospheric Windows with the Receiver Lab Telescope". Sixteenth International Symposium on Space Terahertz Technology: 64. arXiv:astro-ph/0505273. Bibcode:2005stt..conf...64M.
  3. ^ Hand, Nick; Addison, Graeme E.; Aubourg, Eric; Battaglia, Nick; Battistelli, Elia S.; Bizyaev, Dmitry; Bond, J. Richard; Brewington, Howard; Brinkmann, Jon; Brown, Benjamin R.; Das, Sudeep; Dawson, Kyle S.; Devlin, Mark J.; Dunkley, Joanna; Dunner, Rolando (23 July 2012). "Evidence of Galaxy Cluster Motions with the Kinematic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Effect". Physical Review Letters. 109 (4): 041101. arXiv:1203.4219. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.109.041101. ISSN 0031-9007. PMID 23006072.
  4. ^ Niemack, M. D.; Ade, P. A. R.; Aguirre, J.; Barrientos, F.; Beall, J. A.; Bond, J. R.; Britton, J.; Cho, H. M.; Das, S.; Devlin, M. J.; Dicker, S. (16 July 2010). "ACTPol: a polarization-sensitive receiver for the Atacama Cosmology Telescope". In Holland, Wayne S.; Zmuidzinas, Jonas (eds.). Millimeter, Submillimeter, and Far-Infrared Detectors and Instrumentation for Astronomy V. Vol. 7741. San Diego, California, USA. pp. 537–557. arXiv:1006.5049. doi:10.1117/12.857464. S2CID 27705474.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  5. ^ Henderson, S. W.; Allison, R.; Austermann, J.; Baildon, T.; Battaglia, N.; Beall, J. A.; Becker, D.; De Bernardis, F.; Bond, J. R.; Calabrese, E.; Choi, S. K. (1 August 2016). "Advanced ACTPol Cryogenic Detector Arrays and Readout". Journal of Low Temperature Physics. 184 (3): 772–779. arXiv:1510.02809. Bibcode:2016JLTP..184..772H. doi:10.1007/s10909-016-1575-z. ISSN 1573-7357. S2CID 53411729.


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