Antarctic telescope

China’s Kunlun station on Dome Argus, the highest point of the Antarctic Plateau, now has its first telescope. The 50-cm robotic, steerable AST3-1, which will be used to study variable objects, was installed in February.

Two other telescopes to complete an AST3 trio are set to be installed in January 2014. With three, “we will be able to intensively survey a large area of the sky,” says project leader Lifan Wang, director of the Chinese Center for Antarctic Astronomy in Nanjing and an astronomy professor at Texas A&M University. For example, he says, the telescopes will be used to search for exoplanets and, in three different wavelengths “for early supernova discovery and follow-up.”

The telescopes are being built in Nanjing at a cost of a couple million dollars each. Wang points to the power supply for the telescope and cameras built by partners at Australia’s University of New South Wales as one key to the project’s success. “It has to run year-round in that environment, providing power, heat, and internet connectivity, with no human on site. It’s very impressive technology.”

Plans for Kunlun station also include a 2.5-m optical/IR telescope and a 5-m submillimeter dish (see PHYSICS TODAY, January 2011, page 22 ).