Operation and Return of the Pre-HEAT Telescope on Dome A

University Of Arizona, Tucson AZ

Investigators

Abstract

ANT-0914508 Title: Operation and Return of the Pre-HEAT Telescope on Dome A PI: Dr. Christopher K. Walker, University of Arizona The SGER award entitled "Pre-HEAT: First Submillimeter Site Testing and Astronomical Spectra from Dome A" was awarded to the University of Arizona to supply a site-testing small telescope Pre-HEAT to the Australian PLATO autonomous module. The PLATO module was then successfully deployed at Dome A, the highest point on the Antarctic Plateau, in the 2007-08 austral summer as part of a science site-testing program jointly developed by the Australia-Chinese team of astronomers. The objectives of this program was to utilize Pre-HEAT as a pioneering mission which night pave the way for future far-infrared astronomical investigations from Dome A. Pre-HEAT maps the Southern Galactic Plane in the spectral light of 13CO J=6-5, a key measure of the warm, dense gas that participates in star formation and stellar-interstellar feedback. The Pre-HEAT observational program was mostly successful through austral winter of 2008; it is now continued through 2009. This proposal seeks funding to return these instruments back to University of Arizona. Continued reliance on students provides a broader impact to this proposed research and firmly grounds this effort in its educational mission.