The highest observatory in the world just opened in Chile

/ The University of Tokyo Atacama Observatory has been in the works for 26 years.

The University of Tokyo Atacama Observatory (TAO) officially opened on Tuesday after 26 years of planning and construction. Sitting 18,500 feet high on Mount Chajnantor in the Atacama Desert in Chile, the 6.5-meter optical-infrared TAO telescope is now the highest in the world.

TAO replaces a smaller version of itself called MiniTAO, which held the highest telescope distinction before it. It beats the Chacaltaya Observatory, owned by the University of Madrid and sitting 17,191 feet on Mount Chacaltaya in Bolivia.

The next three record holders in the top five are also in Chile’s Atacama desert: the James Ax Observatory (17,100 feet); the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (17,030 feet); and the Llano de Chajnantor Observatory (sources vary; about 16,700 feet). Many of the world’s major observatories are built in the high-altitude, northeastern area of Chile, near Bolivia, because of its clear skies. The country’s tax exemptions for such projects help, too.

Being so high up means far less moisture in the air; TAO can observe “almost the entire range of near-infrared wavelengths,” including mid-infrared. No other earthbound telescope can do that, Phys.org notes. The University of Tokyo writes that such terrestrial observatories are capable of taking higher-resolution shots of space, thanks to their larger apertures, than their space-based counterparts. The telescope will be used to learn about “the birth of galaxies and the origin of planets” starting in 2025, according to the University of Tokyo’s announcement.

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The benefits of TAO sitting at such an extreme altitude come at a cost, however, as humans are pretty ill-suited for life that high up. Yuzuru Yoshii, the principal investigator who started the project in 1998, said that builders working on the telescope needed medical checkups and had to regularly inhale oxygen while they worked.

More:
https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/2/24146743/university-of-tokyo-atacama-observatory-telescope-highest-altitude-infrared

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The highest observatory on Earth sits atop Chile's Andes Mountains — and it's finally open

By Sharmila Kuthunur published April 30, 2024

"The better astronomical observations of the real thing can be, the more accurately we can reproduce what we see with our experiments on Earth."


A new telescope billed as the world's highest astronomical site is officially open for business.

The Japanese University of Tokyo Atacama Observatory, or TAO, which was first conceptualized 26 years ago to study the evolution of galaxies and exoplanets, is perched on top of a tall mountain in the Chilean Andes at 5,640 meters (18,500 feet) above sea level. The facility's altitude surpasses even the Atacama Large Millimeter Array, which is at an elevation of 5,050 meters (16,570 feet).

TAO is located on the summit of Atacama's Cerro Chajnantor mountain, whose name means "place of departure" in the now-extinct Kunza language of the indigenous Likan Antai community. The region's high altitude, sparse atmosphere and perennially arid climate is deadly to humans, but makes an excellent spot for infrared telescopes like TAO as their observational accuracies rely on low moisture levels, which render Earth's atmosphere transparent in infrared wavelengths.

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One of the instruments, named SWIMS, will image galaxies from the very early universe to understand how they coalesced out of pristine dust and gas, a process whose specifics remain murky despite decades of research.

The second, named MIMIZUKU, will aid the overarching science goal by studying primordial disks of dust within which stars and galaxies are known to form, according to the mission plan.

More:
https://www.space.com/worlds-highest-observatory-tao-university-of-tokyo-atacama-opens