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Tagged: IPY project, News

(The Hindu, 2 February 2008) -- Dome Argus, Antarctica: A team of scientists representing six international institutions, including Texas A&M University, has succeeded in reaching the summit of Antarctica – also a monumental achievement for ground-based astronomy -- to establish a new astronomical observatory at Dome Argus on the highest point of the Antarctic Plateau.

Two weeks after arriving Jan. 11 at Dome A for only the second time in history, an expedition team led by the Polar Research Institute of China (PRIC) has completed installation work on a revolutionary fully robotic observatory, dubbed PLATeau Observatory or PLATO, that Texas A&M astrophysicist Dr. Lifan Wang predicts will result in new insights into the universe once possible only from space.

“Dome A is believed to be the best site for ground-based astronomy,” explains Wang, one of the leaders of the scientific planning phase of the expedition, who holds the Mitchell-Heep-Munnerlyn Endowed Career Enhancement Professorship in Physics at Texas A&M and is head of the Chinese Center for Antarctic Astronomy. “Unlike the stormy Antarctic coast, the plateau is a very quiet place with very low wind speed. It is the coldest and driest place on Earth. These are critical conditions of a good site at which to build an observatory.”

Tagged: IPY project, News