News
March 16, 2023: Now accepting applications for 2024 Winterovers! We are accepting applications for both the two SPT winterovers and the MAPO Science Machinist, more details at:
For the SPT winterover positions apply at: https://uchicago.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/External/job/South-Pole/XMLNAME-10-meter-South-Pole-Telescope-Winter-Over_JR21076
For the MAPO Science machinist position apply at: https://uchicago.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/External/job/South-Pole/South-Pole-Machinist_JR21077
February 15, 2023: Last flight of the Austral summer was today, with only Alex and Kyle left behind to run SPT this winter! The experiment is in capable hands, have a great winter Alex and Kyle!
November 29, 2022: After a delay in Christchurch and McMurdo due to a Covid outbreak in Antarctica, the first SPT people of the summer have arrived at South Pole! This includes the 2023 winter-overs Kyle Ferguson and Alex Pollak! In a couple days, we will officially end 2022 observations of our main 1500 square degree survey field, and take the telescope offline for most of the week to do regular maintenance during the Austral summer.
October 31, 2022: South Pole station has officially opened for Austral summer! Winter survey operations will continue through the end of November, however its been a successful observing season for Aman and Allen, with the SPT-3G survey depth equaling the previous three years (i.e., the 2019, 2020, and 2021 winter observing seasons).
March 27, 2022: The SPT has successfully finished observing supermassive black holes with the EHT's 2022 campaign! Winter-overs Allen and Aman had to take down the EHT secondary and tertiary mirrors in -60°C, before moving back to regular SPT-3G survey observing!
November 2, 2021: First flight of the 2021-2022 Austral summer season arrives at South Pole! New winter-overs Aman Chokshi and Allen Foster, are scheduled to arrive soon to replace 2021 winter-overs Sasha Rahlin and Matt Young, who are just finishing a successful 2021 observing season!
March 10, 2021: Stellar flares detected in the SPT-3G survey "Detection of Galactic and Extragalactic Millimeter-Wavelength Transient Sources with SPT-3G" https://arxiv.org/abs/2103.06166
January 5, 2021: First SPT-3G science results posted on arxiv! "Measurements of the E-Mode Polarization and Temperature-E-Mode Correlation of the CMB from SPT-3G 2018 Data" https://arxiv.org/abs/2101.01684
November, 2020: SPT-3G has completed its 2020 winter observing season! The 2020 observing season was fortunately unaffected by Covid, with SPT-3G achieving record sensitivity and efficiency! Congrats to winter-overs Allen Foster and Geoff Chen for a fantastic season!
March 30, 2020: SPT-3G begins its 2020 winter observing season! SPT-3G is continuing to observe our 1500 square degree survey field, which overlaps with the BICEP Array survey, as part of the South Pole Observatory (SPO)!
December, 2019: The SPT-3G experiment has completed its 2019 winter observing season! Winter-overs Doug Howe and David Riebel have left Pole after finishing a successful 2019 austral-winter observing season at the South Pole! A small austral-summer crew relived them, to complete observing the 1500 sq. deg. SPT-3G survey patch for another month, before beginning annual maintenance on the telescope and camera.
October 31, 2019: Leftover Big Bang light helps calculate how massive faraway galaxies are. UChicago News
September 5, 2019: Congratulations to the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) collaboration for being awarded the 2020 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics. The citation reads: "For the first image of a supermassive black hole, taken by means of an Earth-sized alliance of telescopes.” The $3 million prize will be shared equally among the 347 co-authors, including SPT collaboration members Brad Benson, John Carlstrom, Tom Crawford, Jason Henning, Ryan Keisler, Erik Leitch, Daniel Michalik, Andrew Nadolski, Steve Padin, and Sasha Rahlin. The 10 meter South Pole Telescope (SPT) is a critical component of the network of telescopes that make up the EHT.
April 10, 2019: Astronomers capture historic first image of a black hole, UChicago News
April 20, 2018: Cosmologists Can't Agree on the Hubble Constant, American Physical Society
December 6, 2017: ALMA follow up of SPT discovered galaxies, Phys.org
November 2017: SPT-3G camera upgrade begins. Scientists working on the South Pole Telescope (SPT) project have made the long-journey to Antarctica to begin work on the SPT-3G camera. The goal for this summer season is to bring the SPT-3G camera up to full sensitivity following its initial installation in Jan 2017. The upgraded camera will have more than 10x more detectors than its predecessor, SPTpol, and will be used to make an ultra-sensitive map of CMB polarization across 1500 sq. degrees.
February 4, 2016: Chicago Scientists Prepare Ultra-Sensitive Camera for South Pole Telescope, Chicago Tonight
February 2014: South Pole Telescope is added to Google Maps! SPT Google Trekker Photos, Department News
January 2014: SPT's measurement of B-mode polarization chosen as one of Physics World's Top Ten Breakthroughs of 2013, Physics World
March 13, 2013: 'Nuisance' data lead to surprising star-birth discovery, The University of Chicago News Office
August 15, 2012: Phoenix Cluster Sets Record Pace at Forming Stars, NASA; Giant galaxy cluster sets record pace for creating stars, The University of Chicago News Office
April 2, 2012: South Pole Telescope homes in on dark energy, neutrinos, The University of Chicago News Office