Good news for everyone! Astronomers have identified the best location on Earth to study the stars. But if you are an amateur astronomer hoping to take advantage of this astronomical sweet spot, you will have to bundle up, as it is in the heart of Antarctica, One of the coldest places on the planet.
Dome A, the highest ice dome on the Antarctic Plateau, allows for the clearest views of the starry sky at night, according to the new investigation published this week in Nature. Ice domes are the upper portions of the ice sheets, which rise above the frozen ground. Antarctica Dome A, although it is an ideal place to observe the stars, is one of the coldest places on Earth, with temperatures like low as –130 degrees Fahrenheit (-90 degrees centigrade). That’s similar to night on mars.
Brrr.
So while the new document proposes an optimal location for astronomy, the remote location of Dome A, also known as Dome Argus, presents some considerable challenges. Scientists hoping to set up camp here, in addition to dealing with the extreme cold, will have to travel 740 miles (1,200 kilometers) into the interior of the Antarctic continent.
Light pollution poses a problem for both professional and amateur astronomers, but a clear view of the night sky is about more than avoiding street lights and skyscrapers. Although atmospheric turbulence gives stars their signature twinkle, it can hinder unobstructed views of space. Telescopes at mid-latitudes and high elevations, such as those in Hawaii and Chile, are ideal in this regard, as these observatories take advantage of the weaker turbulence found in these locations.
Astronomers have a metric, called a display number, to denote The quality of the night sky view, measured in arc seconds. The lower the number, the lower the turbulence and therefore a better view of the stars, galaxies, nebulae and anything else that astronomers hope to see. In Hawaii and Chile, the number of visitors is around 0.6 to 0.8 arcseconds.
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In Dome C, another ice dome located on the Antarctic plateau, this number is between 0.23 to 0.36 arcseconds, highlighting the frozen continent as an ideal place to view the night sky. Here, the boundary layer, the lowest part of Earth’s atmosphere, is exceptionally thin, resulting in less turbulence.
Dome C is great, but as the new article shows, Dome A is probably better. An international team from China, Canada and Australia performed night measurements at this location, which had not been done before, and found a median of 0.31 arc seconds and a minimum of 0.13 arc seconds.
The researchers also did a comparative analysis of the two Antarctic sites. Measurements from Dome A at a height of 26 feet (8 meters) were much better than measurements taken at the same height in Dome C. In fact, measurements from Dome A at this height were equivalent to measurements made at 66 feet (20 meters) in Dome C, revealing the former as the top location.
“A telescope located in Dome A could surpass a similar telescope located in any other astronomical site on the planet” explained Paul Hickson, an astronomer at the University of British Columbia and co-author of the study, in a UBC press release. “The combination of high altitude, low temperature, long periods of continuous darkness and an exceptionally stable atmosphere make Dome A a very attractive location for optical and infrared astronomy. A telescope located there would have sharper images and could detect fainter objects. “
Not surprisingly, the cold had a detrimental effect on the instruments used in the study, as the researchers’ team was disadvantaged by frost. An unmanned station equipped with a differential imaging motion monitor tracked the Antarctic skies for seven months, with temperatures plummeting to –103 degrees Fahrenheit (-75 degrees centigrade) sometimes. In the press release, Bin Ma, the study’s first author and scientist at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, said: “In itself, that is a technological advance.” A solution to the icy problem could improve display by 10% at 12%, according to the study.
In addition to astronomy, Dome A “is a natural laboratory for studies of turbulence formation and dissipation within the boundary layer,” the authors wrote in their article. “Future measurements of climate, vision, and low-altitude turbulence profile may contribute to a better understanding of the Antarctic atmosphere.”
Clearly, building an observatory on the Antarctic Plateau would be a great logistics company Supplies and personnel would have to be transported, while the structure itself would have to support the extreme cold and possibly even drift on ice. Climate change would probably raise additional complications
Scientists have finally identified the best place on Earth to do astronomy, but will they make it happen? We are excited to find out.
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