First Observations of a New South Pole Telescope
28.02.2007 - Other
A new telescope built at the US Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station delivered its first test observations successfully. Astronomers work at the geographic South Pole to take advantage of excellent viewing conditions. Cold and dry Antarctica allows the South Pole telescope's to detect the cosmic microwave background radiation (the afterglow of the big bang) more easily, with minimal interference from water vapor.
The cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB) allows astronomers to take snapshots of the infant universe, when it was only 400,000 years old.
This new tool, founded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) will study small variations in the CMB to determine if dark energy began to affect the formation of groups of galaxies by fighting against gravity over the past few billion years.
According to one idea, dark energy could be Albert Einstein's cosmological constant: a steady force of nature operating at all times and in all places. Einstein introduced the cosmological constant into his theory of general relativity to accommodate a stationary universe, the dominant idea of the day. If Einstein's idea is correct, scientists will find that dark energy was much less influential in the universe 5 billion years ago than it is today.
Another version of the dark energy theory, called quintessence, suggests a force that varies in time and space. Some scientists even suggest there is no dark energy at all, and that gravity merely breaks down on vast intergalactic scales.
