Post by Mech on Mar 19, 2004 23:02:59 GMT -5
Super Telescope To Probe Deep Space
From: www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/space/03/10/science.telescope.reut/index.html
Thursday, March 11, 2004 Posted: 12:55 PM EST (1755 GMT)
An artist's rendering illustrates the giant telescope's multiple mirrors and hexagonal shape.
SUTHERLAND, South Africa (Reuters) -- Huge white domes make a jarring sight amid the landscape of South Africa's arid Karoo region.
Perched on a wind-swept hilltop, they house telescopes of different shapes and sizes that search the star-filled skies in this remote corner of the Earth for the secrets of the universe.
Those skies will soon be scanned by a super scope that will probe far deeper into space than any of its neighbors -- the Southern African Large Telescope (SALT), which will be 12 yards in diameter.
"This is for deep space observation," said Hitesh Gajjar, an electrical engineer involved in the project, as he pointed with pride at SALT -- a massive hexagon filled with 91 smaller mirrored hexagons, of which 18 are in place.
SALT will enable scientists to view stars and galaxies a billion times too faint to be visible to the naked eye. The official Web site says that is about as faint as a candle's flame on the moon.
SALT will also probe quasars, which resemble bright stars but are in fact black holes at the center of galaxies and which are some of the most distant objects in the universe.
The light reaching us now left them a long time ago and as a consequence we see them as they were billions of years ago when they were young.
"Very distant quasars give us information about earlier times in the history of the universe. One benefit is that this enables us to study the time evolution of the universe," said South African astronomer Chris Koen. "We can also try to determine whether the same physical laws applied in the distant past because we see quasars as they were long ago."
SALT will be the biggest telescope in the southern hemisphere -- from where galaxies can be viewed which cannot be seen up north.
"You can see the Magellanic clouds from the southern hemisphere but not in the north," said Koen.
The Large and Small Magellanic Clouds orbit our own galaxy, the Milky Way, and are sufficiently close for detailed study. Some scientists believe they will eventually collide with the Milky Way and become part of our own galaxy.
"For extragalactic astronomy, the southern hemisphere is the place to be," said Koen.
Location is everything
Scientists from around the world come to South Africa to stargaze.
Location is everything and this hilltop, over 120 miles northeast of Cape Town, is a gateway to the sky.
Set in a nature reserve, springbok antelope graze alongside the telescopes while birds of prey soar in the distance.
The drive there takes you through mile after mile of parched Karoo landscape, rocky scrubland and forlorn sheep farms that seem to roll on forever beneath a vast blue canopy.
When the sun sets and the astronomers come out to work, that canopy is set ablaze with stars.
Few places offer such an undistorted view of the heavens as the sky here is seldom obscured by cloud cover and is far removed from the glare of urban lights.
The terrestrial views on offer can also be breathtaking, as lightning from storms perhaps 60 miles periodically illuminate the horizon in a ghostly light show.
Scientists come here from around the world. Korea and Japan each have telescopes on the site and Germany has one in the works. There is even a solar telescope which is part of a global project run by Britain's University of Birmingham to monitor the sun around the clock.
One of the old workhorses on site is a telescope with a 20-inch mirror. Peer through its view finder and one finds Saturn in all its ringed glory.
But on this particular night, Koen has bigger things to find. From dusk to dawn he will laboriously measure the light and color of 60 to 100 stars, with the light of each star put through five different filters.
"Comparing the brightness of the star as measured through each of the filters enables us to deduce the temperatures of the stars. For very cool stars we can also get an indication of the size of the star -- whether it is a giant or a dwarf," he said.
Using a larger telescope with a 2-yard mirror, Brian Warren, the head of the astronomy department at the University of Cape Town, searches the skies for "interesting stars" which SALT will be trained on.
"We are hunting for exotic objects that SALT will be able to study," he said, monitoring a computer screen.
SALT is expected to come on line in December at a cost of roughly $30 million. German, Polish, American, British and New Zealand partners are helping South Africa.
When it does swing into action beneath the big Karoo sky, it will light up new areas of deep space, and may reveal secrets that will startle and delight us.
From: www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/space/03/10/science.telescope.reut/index.html
Thursday, March 11, 2004 Posted: 12:55 PM EST (1755 GMT)
An artist's rendering illustrates the giant telescope's multiple mirrors and hexagonal shape.
SUTHERLAND, South Africa (Reuters) -- Huge white domes make a jarring sight amid the landscape of South Africa's arid Karoo region.
Perched on a wind-swept hilltop, they house telescopes of different shapes and sizes that search the star-filled skies in this remote corner of the Earth for the secrets of the universe.
Those skies will soon be scanned by a super scope that will probe far deeper into space than any of its neighbors -- the Southern African Large Telescope (SALT), which will be 12 yards in diameter.
"This is for deep space observation," said Hitesh Gajjar, an electrical engineer involved in the project, as he pointed with pride at SALT -- a massive hexagon filled with 91 smaller mirrored hexagons, of which 18 are in place.
SALT will enable scientists to view stars and galaxies a billion times too faint to be visible to the naked eye. The official Web site says that is about as faint as a candle's flame on the moon.
SALT will also probe quasars, which resemble bright stars but are in fact black holes at the center of galaxies and which are some of the most distant objects in the universe.
The light reaching us now left them a long time ago and as a consequence we see them as they were billions of years ago when they were young.
"Very distant quasars give us information about earlier times in the history of the universe. One benefit is that this enables us to study the time evolution of the universe," said South African astronomer Chris Koen. "We can also try to determine whether the same physical laws applied in the distant past because we see quasars as they were long ago."
SALT will be the biggest telescope in the southern hemisphere -- from where galaxies can be viewed which cannot be seen up north.
"You can see the Magellanic clouds from the southern hemisphere but not in the north," said Koen.
The Large and Small Magellanic Clouds orbit our own galaxy, the Milky Way, and are sufficiently close for detailed study. Some scientists believe they will eventually collide with the Milky Way and become part of our own galaxy.
"For extragalactic astronomy, the southern hemisphere is the place to be," said Koen.
Location is everything
Scientists from around the world come to South Africa to stargaze.
Location is everything and this hilltop, over 120 miles northeast of Cape Town, is a gateway to the sky.
Set in a nature reserve, springbok antelope graze alongside the telescopes while birds of prey soar in the distance.
The drive there takes you through mile after mile of parched Karoo landscape, rocky scrubland and forlorn sheep farms that seem to roll on forever beneath a vast blue canopy.
When the sun sets and the astronomers come out to work, that canopy is set ablaze with stars.
Few places offer such an undistorted view of the heavens as the sky here is seldom obscured by cloud cover and is far removed from the glare of urban lights.
The terrestrial views on offer can also be breathtaking, as lightning from storms perhaps 60 miles periodically illuminate the horizon in a ghostly light show.
Scientists come here from around the world. Korea and Japan each have telescopes on the site and Germany has one in the works. There is even a solar telescope which is part of a global project run by Britain's University of Birmingham to monitor the sun around the clock.
One of the old workhorses on site is a telescope with a 20-inch mirror. Peer through its view finder and one finds Saturn in all its ringed glory.
But on this particular night, Koen has bigger things to find. From dusk to dawn he will laboriously measure the light and color of 60 to 100 stars, with the light of each star put through five different filters.
"Comparing the brightness of the star as measured through each of the filters enables us to deduce the temperatures of the stars. For very cool stars we can also get an indication of the size of the star -- whether it is a giant or a dwarf," he said.
Using a larger telescope with a 2-yard mirror, Brian Warren, the head of the astronomy department at the University of Cape Town, searches the skies for "interesting stars" which SALT will be trained on.
"We are hunting for exotic objects that SALT will be able to study," he said, monitoring a computer screen.
SALT is expected to come on line in December at a cost of roughly $30 million. German, Polish, American, British and New Zealand partners are helping South Africa.
When it does swing into action beneath the big Karoo sky, it will light up new areas of deep space, and may reveal secrets that will startle and delight us.