The South Pole Telescope (SPT)

The South Pole Telescope (SPT) is a 10-meter diameter microwave / millimeter / sub-millimeter wavelength telescope located at the NSF Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, which is the best currently operational site on Earth for mm-wave survey observations due to its stable, dry atmosphere.  The SPT is equipped with the most powerful cosmic microwave background (CMB) camera now operating, the three-band (90, 150, 220 GHz), 16,000-detector, polarization-sensitive SPT-3G camera.  

SPT is pursuing some of the most compelling questions in science: What is the origin of the Universe?  What is the Universe made of? What is the fate of the Universe? What is dark energy? What are the neutrino masses? Are there new, undiscovered particle species in the early Universe? Is General Relativity the correct description of gravity?  When did the first stars, galaxies, and structures form, and how did they evolve?

With its unique location, the SPT plays a critical role in achieving the goal of the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) to image the event horizon around the black hole at the center of our Galaxy.