Astronomical Studies with the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory

摘要AST 99-80846。 加州理工学院。 PI：T.G. PhillipsAstronomical Studies with the Caltech Submillimeter ObservatoryThis award supports research，technical development，and student education at the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory（CSO）. CSO由一个直径为10.4米的高表面精度天线组成，位于夏威夷岛莫纳克亚山山顶以下近14,000英尺的高度。 天文台的使命是对波长范围在1毫米至350毫米的天体进行光谱和连续观测;地球大气层对这些波长的辐射不透明是天文台设在高空的原因。 该观测站是在1984-1987年期间由NSF资助建造的。 CSO是目前美国唯一一个能够在整个亚毫米大气窗口运行的设施，CSO计划在未来三年内利用新的照相机和其他增强的仪器进行三个关键项目：（i）探测和研究遥远和可能的原始星系中的星际介质; ㈡在足够大的星系团样本中进行高频Sunyaev-Zel'dovich测量，以便对哈勃常数进行有意义的独立测量;研究致密星际介质中星星形成的最早阶段

AbstractAST 99-80846. California Institute of Technology. PI: T.G. PhillipsAstronomical Studies with the Caltech Submillimeter ObservatoryThis award supports research, technological development, and student education at the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory (CSO). The CSO consists of a 10.4-meter-diameter, high surface precision antenna located at an altitude of nearly 14,000 feet, just below the summit of Mauna Kea on the island of Hawaii. The CSO's mission is to carry out spectroscopic and continuum observations of astronomical objects in the wavelength range 1mm-350mm; the opacity of the Earth's atmosphere to radiation at these wavelengths is the reason for the observatory's location at high altitude. The observatory was constructed with funds from the NSF during the period 1984-1987. The CSO is presently the only US facility capable of operations throughout the full submillimeter atmospheric window.Using new cameras and other enhanced instrumentation, the CSO is proposing in the next three years to carry out three key projects: (i) detection and study of the interstellar medium in distant and possibly primordial galaxies; (ii) pursuit of high-frequency Sunyaev-Zel'dovich measurements in a large enough galaxy cluster sample to make a meaningful independent measurement of the Hubble constant; and (iii) study of the very earliest stages of star formation in the dense interstellar medium