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CONDOR Looks at the Universe in the 1.5 TeraHertz Range for the First Time
CONDOR was installed at the APEX (Atacama Pathfinder EXperiment) Radio Telescope in the Chilean Andes and immediately detected hot gases in the vicinity of young massive stars from radiation at the extremely high radio frequency of 1.5 terahertz (THz) (that is, 1.5 Million Million Hertz). The CONDOR detections are the first THz-frequency observations acquired with a large telescope (12 m diameter). The observations revealed several surprises and it appears that THz astronomy is beginning to yield valuable scientific results.
APEX is the first and largest sub-millimetre facility that can observe in the THz range. With its precise antenna and large collecting area, it will provide unprecedented access to a whole new domain in astronomical observations. Millimetre and sub-millimetre astronomy opens exciting new
possibilities in the study of the first galaxies that formed in the Universe and of the processes of star and planet formation. APEX will, among other things, allow astronomers to study the chemistry and physical conditions of molecular clouds, those dense regions of gas and dust in which new stars are forming.
"CONDOR has fully met our expectations," said Dr.
Martina Wiedner, the CONDOR project leader. "We
prepared the receiver well, we had an excellent team at the site, but we also were lucky that the weather was so good." Because of the difficulty in detecting electromagnetic waves at such high frequencies (a thousand times higher than those of a cellular phone and a million times higher than "short wave" radio), state-of-the-art receivers had to be used. To achieve high sensitivity, the receiver is cooled to a temperature of -269 degrees , only 4 degrees above absolute zero.
The CONDOR observations require that the amount of
water vapor in the Earth atmosphere is exceptionally small, because water vapor readily absorbs THz radiation. Located in the Atacama Desert of Chile at an elevation of 5100 meters, the site of the APEX telescope is extraordinarily dry. APEX has a 12 meter primary mirror with a perfect paraboloid surface to within 15 microns (7 times thinner than a human hair). CONDOR is the first APEX receiver operational above the 1 THz
range.
"The CONDOR observations are done at the highest
frequencies that APEX expects to ever reach," explains the APEX project manager, Dr. Rolf Güsten. "At even higher frequencies, the Earth’s atmosphere becomes opaque until one reaches the infrared wavelengths."
The CONDOR observations on APEX open up the nearly
unknown THz universe for exploration. "If one could only see blue things, one would never know about trees and grass," explains Dr. Martina Wiedner. "Similarly, one discovers new things in the universe by looking at it in different frequencies. The spectral signatures of hot gas is seen at THz frequencies. Since hot gas is an essential component of massive star formation,
regions that give birth to massive stars can be
observed at these frequencies." Surprisingly, CONDOR detected emission from CO at 1.5 THz during its first observations. Astronomers on the CONDOR project team are eager to make further observations.
The APEX telescope was built jointly by the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy (Bonn, Germany), the Onsala Space Observatory (Sweden), and the European Southern Observatory (ESO). The success of CONDOR is a combined effort of researchers from the University of Cologne and the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy.
Click here for more about this subject. -Ed.
APEX is the first and largest sub-millimetre facility that can observe in the THz range. With its precise antenna and large collecting area, it will provide unprecedented access to a whole new domain in astronomical observations. Millimetre and sub-millimetre astronomy opens exciting new
possibilities in the study of the first galaxies that formed in the Universe and of the processes of star and planet formation. APEX will, among other things, allow astronomers to study the chemistry and physical conditions of molecular clouds, those dense regions of gas and dust in which new stars are forming.
"CONDOR has fully met our expectations," said Dr.
Martina Wiedner, the CONDOR project leader. "We
prepared the receiver well, we had an excellent team at the site, but we also were lucky that the weather was so good." Because of the difficulty in detecting electromagnetic waves at such high frequencies (a thousand times higher than those of a cellular phone and a million times higher than "short wave" radio), state-of-the-art receivers had to be used. To achieve high sensitivity, the receiver is cooled to a temperature of -269 degrees , only 4 degrees above absolute zero.
The CONDOR observations require that the amount of
water vapor in the Earth atmosphere is exceptionally small, because water vapor readily absorbs THz radiation. Located in the Atacama Desert of Chile at an elevation of 5100 meters, the site of the APEX telescope is extraordinarily dry. APEX has a 12 meter primary mirror with a perfect paraboloid surface to within 15 microns (7 times thinner than a human hair). CONDOR is the first APEX receiver operational above the 1 THz
range.
"The CONDOR observations are done at the highest
frequencies that APEX expects to ever reach," explains the APEX project manager, Dr. Rolf Güsten. "At even higher frequencies, the Earth’s atmosphere becomes opaque until one reaches the infrared wavelengths."
The CONDOR observations on APEX open up the nearly
unknown THz universe for exploration. "If one could only see blue things, one would never know about trees and grass," explains Dr. Martina Wiedner. "Similarly, one discovers new things in the universe by looking at it in different frequencies. The spectral signatures of hot gas is seen at THz frequencies. Since hot gas is an essential component of massive star formation,
regions that give birth to massive stars can be
observed at these frequencies." Surprisingly, CONDOR detected emission from CO at 1.5 THz during its first observations. Astronomers on the CONDOR project team are eager to make further observations.
The APEX telescope was built jointly by the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy (Bonn, Germany), the Onsala Space Observatory (Sweden), and the European Southern Observatory (ESO). The success of CONDOR is a combined effort of researchers from the University of Cologne and the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy.
Click here for more about this subject. -Ed.
