IAU 2003 SPAO papatishvilli

South PoleAstrophysical Observatory Research Activities: 

South Pole Astrophysical Observatory Research Activities Vladimir Papitashvili and Dennis Peacock Office of Polar Programs National Science Foundation U.S.A. vpapita@nsf.gov dpeacock@(retired May 30) Astronomy in Antarctica General Assembly International Astronomical Union Sydney, Australia, July 18, 2003

Astronomy at South PoleHistorical Perspective: 

Astronomy at South Pole Historical Perspective 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Cosmology: 1-m parabolic, upward looking telescope with two bolometers at 0.3 K Martin Pomerantz, Astronomy on Ice (yet unpublished memoir): “My efforts over many years, from 1970 to 1987 to get the ball rolling throughout the astronomical community had finally succeeded.”

Science at South Pole: 

Science at South Pole Astrophysics and Cosmology 9 projects Meteorology and Climatology 5 projects Geophysics and Glaciology 4 projects Dark Sector Quiet Sector Clean Air Sector Aeronomy and STP 12 projects

Astrophysics and Cosmology Dark Sector: 

Astrophysics and Cosmology Dark Sector 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 Neutrino telescope – an array of photo detectors frozen in the ice - to detect high-energy cosmic neutrinos from deep space 10 m 2004-2009 2007

South Pole Infrared Explorer SPIREX, 0.6-m, 1-5 m wide-field survey of star formation in Milky Way and Magellanic Clouds: 

South Pole Infrared Explorer SPIREX, 0.6-m, 1-5 m wide-field survey of star formation in Milky Way and Magellanic Clouds

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 Antarctic Submillimeter Telescope / Remote Observatory – 1.7-m survey instrument to study Milky Way and other galaxies AASTO AST/RO

Martin A. Pomerantz Observatory (1994): 

Martin A. Pomerantz Observatory (1994) Python (1992-1997) DASI (since 2000) Viper telescope: ACBAR SPARO 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 Observations (SPARO)

CMB Study Results: 

BOOMERanG CMB Sky DASI CMB power spectrum and polarization CMB Study Results Temperature variations (µK) (inflationary model and data) ACBAR High moment peaks in CMB power spectrum

Education and Outreach: 

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.

Slide10: 

To study CMB polarization and SZ effect in galaxy clusters To test and constrain various cosmological models To search for Dark Energy and Dark Matter New Dark Sector Laboratory – FY04 South Pole Telescope PI: John Carlstrom, U. Chicago Following recommendations from NRC’s Astronomy & Astrophysics Decadal Report, NSF has recently funded a new project to build at South Pole a 10m-class telescope: SPT– FY07

Other Cosmology and Astrophysics Projects : 

Other Cosmology and Astrophysics Projects 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

Relevant Projects at South Pole: 

Solar Telescope - to study acoustic waves and speed of sound in Sun’s atmosphere PI: Stuart Jefferies, UNM Relevant Projects at South Pole Helioseismology One month of observations at South Pole gives the same discovery rate as three months of observations at middle latitudes PI: Doug Caldwell, SETI Extrasolar Planets Search

Particle Astrophysics at South Pole: 

1997-10-12 Event Zenith 155.3 Azimuth 264.6 2000 Neutrino telescopes look through the Earth to understand how Nature can accelerate particles to very high energies Particle Astrophysics at South Pole Feeble interaction with matter makes neutrinos ideal astro-messengers allowing to study highly energetic cosmical events

AMANDA and IceCube : 

80 strings 4800 sensors 107-1016 eV 1014-1018 eV AMANDA AMANDA and IceCube Hot Water Drilling FY04 Hot Water Drill --> South Pole FY05 Drilling first 6 holes, deploying DOMs FY06 – FY09 Full construction of IceCube Antarctic Muon And Neutrino Detector Array PI: Bob Morse A new neutrino detector array of 1-km3 scale PI: Francis Halzen University of Wisconsin IceCube

IceCubeA Kilometer-ScaleNeutrino Observatory: 

IceCube 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 high-energy 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

BOOMERanG 1998-99 and 2002-03: 

BOOMERanG 1998-99 and 2002-03 Long-Duration Ballooning from McMurdo Balloon Observations Of Millimetric Extragalactic Radiation and Geophysics ATIC Advanced Thin Ionization Calorimeter 2002-03

FY04 Proposed Astrophysics Projects : 

FY04 Proposed Astrophysics Projects 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

South Pole and Concordia should become world-class, complementary facilitiesScientist should collaborate at both stations, jointly attacking most outstanding problems of Astronomy, Astrophysics, and Polar Cosmology : 

South Pole and Concordia should become world-class, complementary facilities Scientist should collaborate at both stations, jointly attacking most outstanding problems of Astronomy, Astrophysics, and Polar Cosmology Antarctic Astronomy and Astrophysics Astrophysics at South Pole Astrophysics at Concordia?