The unique geographical location and environment make Antarctica an ideal place for astronomical observations. The reporter learned from the Shanghai Astronomical Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences on the 15th that the prototype of the "Antarctic Celestial Eye" time-domain astronomical telescope array was successfully developed.
The "Antarctic Skyeye" project proposed by the Shanghai Astronomical Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2019 plans to lay out an optical telescope array composed of 100 small-aperture and large-field telescopes in the Antarctic region, with a field of view of about 100 square degrees for a single telescope, covering a 10,000-square-degree celestial area above 30 degrees above the horizon.
The prototype of the "Antarctic Sky Eye" is observed under the aurora rays. (Courtesy of the Shanghai Astronomical Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences).
According to Zhou Dan, the person in charge of the prototype of the Shanghai Astronomical Observatory's "Antarctic Tianmu" and a senior engineer, with the strong support and assistance of the China Polar Research Center of the Ministry of Natural Resources, the prototype of the "Antarctic Tianmu" arrived at Zhongshan Station during China's 39th Antarctic expedition. After successfully completing the installation and commissioning of the equipment, the expedition team began to observe from February 20 to October 26, 2023, and continued to make trouble-free observations, and obtained a large amount of observation data during the polar night in Antarctica.
The team of Shanghai Astronomical Observatory conducted an in-depth analysis of the observation images, and the preliminary results showed that in the 30-second image of the prototype, the photometric accuracy of the star brighter than the 9th magnitude can reach one thousandth of the magnitude, which meets the observation requirements of the "South Pole Celestial Eye" time-domain astronomical telescope array, indicating that the prototype is reasonable and feasible in terms of design innovation, environmental adaptability, drift scanning CCD technology application and operational reliability, and has been successfully developed.
With the advancement of technology, contemporary astronomy has developed from the description of the static universe to the understanding of the dynamic universe, through long-term multi-band observation, to reveal the changes of various celestial bodies in the universe, and to discover and explore all kinds of new celestial bodies and new phenomena, which is the emerging sub-discipline of astronomy - time-domain astronomy. Zhou Dan said, "Time-domain astronomy has become a leading major frontier field in astronomy, and the prototype of 'Antarctic Tianmu' is China's first Antarctic astronomical observation equipment based on drift scanning CCD technology. ”
Drift scanning CCD technology is a core technology that Shanghai Astronomical Observatory has been tackling for nearly 20 years. This technology enables the telescope to track celestial objects without a driving mechanism, and at the same time can continuously observe a declination zone, which can significantly improve the reliability of the system and the efficiency of sky survey.
The prototype of the "Antarctic Sky Eye" is in Antarctica. (Courtesy of the Shanghai Astronomical Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences).
In Antarctica, the prototype endured a minimum temperature of minus 373 degrees Celsius, maximum wind speed 38The severe challenge of 6 meters and seconds, the stable operation of the equipment and the excellent observation image quality reflect the application advantages of the integrated structure design idea based on drift scanning CCD technology in the field of polar astronomy, and it is expected to effectively solve the frequent failure problems of Antarctic astronomical telescopes. ”
Shen Zhiqiang, director of the Shanghai Astronomical Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that the "Antarctic Celestial Eye" project will next develop a time-domain astronomical telescope array sample equipment, and strive to deploy it in the Antarctic in batches.
*:Xinhua.