Science Goals for an Antarctic Large Infrared Telescope

• Main Authors: Burton Storey And, M. G. Burton, J. W. V. Storey, M. C. B. Ashley
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Antarctica; Site Testing; Astronomy; Infrared; Star Formation; Interstellar Medium; Disks; Antarctic; South Pole; The Antarctic; Antarc*; South pole
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.27.3499; http://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/~mgb/Antbib/spie00_4005-41.pdf

Over the past few years, site-testing at the South Pole has revealed conditions that are uniquely favorable for infrared astronomy. In particular, the exceptionally low sky brightness throughout the near- and mid-infrared leads to the possibilityofa modest-sized telescope achieving comparable sensitivitytothatof existing 8#10 metre class telescopes. An 8 m Antarctic telescope, if constructed, would yield performance that would be unrivaled until the advent of the NGST. In this paper we review the scienti#c potential of infrared telescopes in Antarctica, and discuss their complementarity with existing 8#10m class telescopes. Keywords: Antarctica, Site Testing, Astronomy, Infrared, Star Formation, Interstellar Medium, Disks 1. INTRODUCTION The Antarctic plateau provides unique conditions on the Earth for the conduct of observational astronomy. The air is thin, dry and cold and the weather stable; attributes all o#ering signi#cant sensitivity gains over temperate latitude sites. These .