Thursday, May 31. 2012
South Pole Telescope Event at the World Science Fair
South Pole Telescope team members present at the World Science Festival in NYC!
On Friday, June 1, 2012 from 2:00 PM - 3:30 PM SPT principal investigator
Dr. John Carlstrom will be participating in a discussion about cosmology and
how scientists study the universe. Details
On Sunday, June 3, 2012 from 10am to 6pm SPT scientists will be at the
Science Street Fair in Washington Square Park with the SPT traveling exhibit.
Street Fair Website
Exhibit Info
On Friday, June 1, 2012 from 2:00 PM - 3:30 PM SPT principal investigator
Dr. John Carlstrom will be participating in a discussion about cosmology and
how scientists study the universe. Details
On Sunday, June 3, 2012 from 10am to 6pm SPT scientists will be at the
Science Street Fair in Washington Square Park with the SPT traveling exhibit.
Street Fair Website
Exhibit Info
Winterovers Send Pictures from the South Pole!
The South Pole Telescope winterovers are now in their third month of winter at the South Pole. They provided us with some beautiful pictures. Below are pictures of the telescope, the night sky and the aurora:
Here is a little glimpse of life at the South Pole during winter:
The South Pole Telescope before nightfall. Photographed by Nicholas Huang.
The Milky Way photographed by Cynthia Chiang.
The aurora and the telescope photographed by Cynthia Chiang.
Here is a little glimpse of life at the South Pole during winter:
There is a small greenhouse in the South Pole Station to provide veggies over the cold winter months. Photographed by Cynthia Chiang.
Monday, April 23. 2012
SPT Events April 23 - 29: Chicago, Santa Barbara, D.C
Friday, April 20. 2012
Tonight at Adler Planetarium: Exploring the Universe from the Bottom of the World
Friday, April 20, 2012
7:00 - 8:00 p.m.
Location: The Adler Planetarium, Universe Theater (Chicago, IL)
Presented by Dr. John Carlstrom
We are in the middle of a revolution in our understanding of the Universe. We can finally begin to answer questions such as "How old is the Universe? How did it start? What is the Universe made of? Cosmologists at the University of Chicago have been searching for answers to these questions in one of the most forbidding places on Earth: the high Antartica plateau.
Read More...
Thursday, April 12. 2012
In Chicago and want to learn more about SPT?
Come talk with Dr. Brad Benson at Café Scientifique!
The Ends of the Earth & the Beginning of the Universe:
The Big Bang, Dark Energy & the South Pole
Presenter: Brad Benson
Time & Date: 7-9 PM
Monday April 23, 2012
Location: The Map Room
1949 N. Hoyne, Chicago, IL
(Limited to first 50 Attendees)
One hundred years ago humans first arrived at South Pole and for the past 20 or so years scientists have traveled there to build telescopes to study the early Universe. These experiments measure light left over from the Big Bang, the cosmic microwave background (CMB). They provide a unique snapshot of the infant Universe at a time when it was only ~400,000 years old, or 0.003% of its current age. These measurements and other evidence tell us that the Universe began with a Big Bang about 14 billion years ago, and that it contains only 4 percent "ordinary" matter (e.g., stars and galaxies, you and me, etc.). The rest of the Universe consists of two mysterious dark components: Dark Matter and Dark Energy. We will discuss evidence for the Big Bang, Dark Matter, and Dark Energy; the latest results from the South Pole, and what its like to work at the bottom of the world.
Subscibe to the Café email list
Thursday, April 5. 2012
SPT at the USA Science & Engineering Festival
We are very excited to be taking part in the 2nd USA Science & Engineering Festival in Washington DC April 28-29.
The event is free and held at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center. We've partnered with Bo Rodda's class at the School of the Art Institute in Chicago to meld science and creativity into an exhibit that we hope you'll enjoy.
SPT scientists will be on hand to answer all of your questions about SPT and the science we explore. Hope to see you there!
Read more about the SPT exhibit: 100 Years of Exploration @ South Pole: From Survival to Science
here, and check out the festival on Facebook.
Monday, April 2. 2012
South Pole Telescope homes in on dark energy, neutrinos
Wednesday, March 14. 2012
Pole Update: The Sun is Setting
Here at the South Pole, we are coming up to a very special event: in a week's time, the sun will have set for the next six months. For now, it is still fully above the horizon, but very low. I figured it was appropriate to share some of the last rays of the sun SPT will see as we start our main observing season.
Friday, March 2. 2012
First Centaurus A Map from SPTpol
It has been a few weeks since station closing, and aside from our stalwart winterovers, the SPTpol crew is back home and looking at the data streaming north from the telescope. Shown above is an early reduction of the first scan made over the nearby radio galaxy Centaurus A (also known as NGC 5128). It is a temperature map, made using the 90 GHz detectors. Cen A is close enough to Earth that we can actually resolve structure in the galaxy; in SPTpol, we see the center of the galaxy (the blue blob), and the two relativistic jets from the active galactic nucleus (the yellow blobs). Note that this map is flipped around the vertical axis relative to most images you will find on the web. This is still a very rough reduction: the temperature scale isn't calibrated, and the pointing model isn't optimized, but its very exciting to already see the jets with such high signal-to-noise in one observation. The mm-wave emission from the jets is polarized, and we will be using observations of Cen A as part of our polarization angle calibration scheme.
Thursday, January 26. 2012
First Light!
We started hoisting the optics/receiver cryostats into the telescope cabin at 9am on Jan 25, 2012. A mere 39 hours later at 11pm on Jan 26th we achieved first light with SPTpol! Below are detector timestreams as we scan across RCW38, one of the many calibration sources we use. In the next few weeks, we'll be working hard to characterize our instrument. We will make maps of calibration sources, characterize detector response and time constants, map our beams, get the telescope in really good focus for the winter, and measure our detector polarization angles. There is a lot to do to get ready for the observing season, but we're all really excited that we can see astrophysical objects with our new instrument! Congratulations and thanks to everyone who worked so hard to make this instrument possible. Stay tuned for updates!
First light with SPTpol! The dips in the timestreams are where we are scanning across RCW38, one of the calibration sources we use.
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