space porn, antarctica, astronomy, cosmology, dark energy, science, south pole telescope

Ultracold Polar Telescope Searches for Dark Energy

Is an invisible, undetectable force tearing the universe apart? The South Pole Telescope is scanning the skies for signs of dark energy to help pinpoint the cause of cosmic expansion. The answers it provides could allow us to better explain the origin of the universe and its ultimate fate.

Earlier this week I pondered whether dark energy is just a new version of an outdated theory, but a team of astronomers in Antarctica is doing the hard work of trying to find out. The South Pole Telescope (SPT) uses 1,000 advanced optical sensors to peer at distant galaxy clusters looking for subtle variations in the cosmic background radiation. Those variations will give scientists a better idea of the structure of the universe, and whether or not dark energy is part of it.

The SPT is the largest Antarctic telescope. Despite the frigid cold of the region, the optics are further shielded from background heat by being chilled to a temperature not far from absolute zero. Photo by: The University of Chicago.

Cosmologists Probe Mystery Of Dark Energy With South Pole Telescope. [Science Daily]

2:30 PM on Fri Apr 4 2008
By Ed Grabianowski
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12 comments

Comments

AhnyerKeester at 02:44 PM on 04/04/08
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It's a giant toilet. Good in case giant aliens are in the galactic neighborhood and can't hold it till they get home.

Man, we're a interstellar rest area. That bites.
Annalee Newitz at 03:01 PM on 04/04/08
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Connectedness Index: 344

@AhnyerKeester: Hey, now. It's not just a giant toilet. It's a giant toilet WITH A RAINBOW.
AhnyerKeester at 03:13 PM on 04/04/08
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@Annalee Newitz: True. That makes it a magic giant toilet!!
greetings at 03:20 PM on 04/04/08
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Bad planning on our part. No place to hang the toilet paper.
psdbny at 03:22 PM on 04/04/08
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You can watch live feed interviews & stuffs of the giant toilet at the SF Exploratorium.
I watched them prep for one of the interviews..and yup...those scientist are little ego maniacs.
[icestories.exploratorium.edu]
psdbny at 03:24 PM on 04/04/08
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If I remember correctly the scientist couldn't figure out where to look so they would be looking into the filming camera...
amorphous at 04:55 PM on 04/04/08
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Predicted conclusion: dark energy appears to be made of penguins.
Spellbound at 05:40 PM on 04/04/08
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To the astronomers of Antarctica:

Dark energy = hot, black coffee

And it is undisputedly a part of the universe.
bluewyvern at 07:53 PM on 04/04/08
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"Is an invisible, undetectable force tearing the universe apart?"

Taken out of context, that's a wonderful line. The ultimate in scaremongering!
Naked_Quark at 08:39 AM on 04/05/08
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Pretty cool looking. One minor quibble: it's the sensors that would need to be chilled to near absolute zero, not the optics, because the sensors are presumably electronic and require cooling to reduce thermal fluctuations in their signal output (which means noise). One would like the optics to be protected from differential temperature variations, as is true of optics elsewhere, because that might physically distort the structure and hence the image. But they shouldn't need to be cooled unless some part of them contacts the sensors or their immediate supports.
packaride at 05:28 PM on 04/05/08
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The secondary optics, a 1m. mirror, is cooled in a cryostat to a few degrees K. to reduce the noise, as are the detectors (to a few degrees mK.). The signal they are trying to pick up in the CMB is only a few degrees K, so any heat radiating out of the telescope components would add noise and wash out the signal.
Jeff-Minor at 06:10 AM on 04/07/08
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As humans look out further, gathering in larger bits of the Universe to examine in detail, the Universe grows larger. Our human minds can collapse entire chunks of an finite Universe simply by observing. That's one of the things human conciousess does: it collapses reality into decrete units. So, when we bring a galaxy into focus for the first time, the Universe has to use a large junk of dark matter to run this now-discrete collapsed state of matter on, because dark matter is the ultimate sub-straight for this place. At the same time dark energy is used to communicate this new reality state to all the other bits of our consistent universe. This requires networks of anti-Higgs bosons. These networks are anti-gravity lines which cause the universe to expand, ever-so- slightly faster. Just think what this place is going to be like when we've mapped more and more of the sky?

I thank a variety of writers for the above occulto-weirdo ideas.