Atacama Submillimeter Telescope Experiment

Atacama Submillimeter Telescope Experiment
	Atacama Submillimeter Telescope Experiment
Alternative names	ASTE
Part of	Llano de Chajnantor Observatory
Location(s)	Atacama Desert
Coordinates	22°58′17″S 67°42′10″W / 22.9714°S 67.7028°W / -22.9714; -67.7028
Altitude	4,800 m (15,700 ft)
Wavelength	0.1 mm (3.0 THz)–1.0 mm (300 GHz)
First light	2004
Telescope style	radio telescope
Diameter	10 m (32 ft 10 in)
Website	alma.mtk.nao.ac.jp/aste/
	Location of Atacama Submillimeter Telescope Experiment
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The Atacama Submillimeter Telescope Experiment (ASTE) is a 10-meter-diameter antenna built by Mitsubishi Electric as a preprototype for ALMA.

The ASTE was deployed to its site on Pampa La Bola, near Cerro Chajnantor and the Llano de Chajnantor Observatory in northern Chile.^[1] The antenna shows excellent performance including a surface accuracy of 19 μm (0.00075 in) r.m.s.^[2] The telescope is remotely controllable from multiple sites through satellite connections and the Internet. It is operated by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan and the University of Tokyo, Nagoya University, and Osaka Prefecture University, in cooperation with the Universidad de Chile.

Initially operating at 240 GHz using a focal-plane bolometer array, the telescope was upgraded in 2018 with a heterodyne receiver system operating at 345 GHz and 460 GHz.^[3]

References

^ Ezawa, Hajime; Kawabe, Ryohei; Kohno, Kotaro; Yamamoto, Satoshi (2004-09-28). "The Atacama Submillimeter Telescope Experiment (ASTE)". In Oschmann, Jacobus M. Jr. (ed.). Ground-based Telescopes. Vol. 5489. USA. p. 763. doi:10.1117/12.551391. S2CID 120747612.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^ Kohno, K. "The Atacama Submillimeter Telescope Experiment". The Cool Universe: Observing Cosmic Dawn, ASP Conference Series, Vol. 344, Proceedings of the conference held 4–8 October 2004 in Valparaiso, Chile. Bibcode:2005ASPC..344..242K.
^ Okuda, Takeshi; Iono, Daisuke; Satou, Naohisa; Uemizu, Kazunori; Inata, Motoko; Izumi, Natsuko; Kamazaki, Takeshi; Ito, Tetsuya; Asayama, Shin'Ichiro; Fujii, Yasunori (2018). "The new heterodyne receiver system for the ASTE radio telescope: Three-cartridge cryostat with two cartridge-type superconducting receivers". In Gao, Jian-Rong; Zmuidzinas, Jonas (eds.). Millimeter, Submillimeter, and Far-Infrared Detectors and Instrumentation for Astronomy IX. p. 100. doi:10.1117/12.2313087. ISBN 9781510619692. S2CID 116823513.