A Next-generation Camera for the South Pole Telescope

National Science Foundation
Office of Polar Programs
4201 Wilson Boulevard
Arlington, VA 22230

Posted September 10, 2018

The 10-meter South Pole Telescope at NSF’s Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station makes images of the oldest light in the universe.

Known as the cosmic microwave background, or CMB, it has journeyed across the cosmos for 14 billion years — from the moments immediately after the Big Bang until now. Because it is in the microwave part of the spectrum, the CMB is impossible to see with our eyes and requires specialized telescopes.

Recently the SPT made a third-generation camera for a multiyear survey operational.

“Being able to detect and analyze the CMB, especially with this level of detail, is like having a time machine to go back to the first moments of our universe,” said John Carlstrom, of The University of Chicago, the SPT principal investigator.

Read more in a Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory news release here: https://news.fnal.gov/2018/09/next-generation-camera-for-the-south-pole-telescope-takes-data-of-early-universe/