About the ASTE Project
The ASTE (Atacama Submillimeter Telescope Experiment) telescope is a 10-meter submillimeter telescope, constructed in the highlands Pampa la Bola at an altitude of 4860 meters in the Atacama Desert in northern Chile in 2002, about 10 years ahead of ALMA. The ASTE telescope observes the dark universe, which is not visible with the naked eye, by radio waves (submillimeter waves) at a wavelength of 1 mm or less and captures the formation of stars and galaxies. The ASTE project was established for the operation of the ASTE telescope, which has been contributing to the advancement of astronomical research as a testbed for verifying new observation instruments and methods for submillimeter observation.
Observed Image
Distribution of carbon monoxide (CO), hydrogen cyanide (HCN), and formyl ion (HCO+) around the Orion Nebula observed by the new superconducting receiver DESHIMA (Deep Spectroscopic High-redshift Mapper). The Orion Nebula, observable at optical wavelengths, is located in the lower center. All of the three molecules emit strong radio waves, and CO spreads from the Orion Nebula widely north and south.
DESHIMA, a receiver developed by an international team of researchers in the Netherlands and Japan, employs a completely new mechanism that can detect a wide frequency range of radio waves and disperse them into different frequencies. Thanks to this new ability, it has become possible to simultaneously observe radio waves from various molecules existing in a wide frequency band as shown in the above figure. Based on the world's first technology that DESHIMA has successfully demonstrated, the research team aims to develop a full-fledged radio spectral imaging camera. It is expected that this research will provide new insights into various fields ranging from research of star-forming regions in the Milky Way galaxy to research of distant galaxies.
Telescope
ASTE
The ASTE telescope is a 10-m diameter telescope built at 4800-m altitude in the Chilean Andes, located in the vicinity of ALMA. ASTE has produced various remarkable results in the observations of star-forming regions and distant galaxies as the first full-fledged submillimeter telescope in the southern hemisphere that started its science observation from 2004. Also, ASTE has been utilized by many researchers around the world as a base verification tool of newly developed observing instruments or observation methods.