ATACAMA

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

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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 gt 15) and high spectral
• resolution heterodyne receivers
• At a very high (elevation gt 5000m), very dry
• (Precipitable Water Vapor column PWVlt1 mm)
• site with wide sky coverage
• NOT confusion-limited in exposures of
• 24 hrs or less

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

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Why FIR/submm?
Photospheric light Reprocessed by dust
Thats the energy regime at which most of
the Universes 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
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How did we get from this
and this?
to this
and this
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starburst galaxies
star formation rate
normal galaxies
gas density
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Starburst systems emit the vast majority of
their light in the FIR
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Arp220 is 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
.
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KBOs trans-Neptunian objects probably formed
early in the Outer reaches of the solar
protoplanetary disk. Several hundreds known
Pluto (D2400km), Charon (D1200 km), Varuna
(D900km) 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
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CCAT can easily detect KBOs with D150 km in few
hours and, with sufficient integration, it can
detect even smaller objects without becoming
confused. Hundreds of thousands KBOs with Dgt100
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.
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With CCAT, which will be the most sensitive
FIR/submm telescope in the world
SIRTF
Herschel
APEX
JCMT
ALMA
CCAT
LMT
(Herter)
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In the highest, driest tropical region on Earth
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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?
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View from the Summit of Cerro Negro, to the North
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• 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

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Extra slides
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The CCAT will detect SFR10-30 up to a z 3,
and SFR100 at all z