Plans are underway in 2019 to reconfigure the telescope for visible-light measurements to hunt for exoplanets. The PAIRITEL project ran from 2003 to 2012. The telescope was converted to automatic control, and renamed Peters Automated Infrared Imaging Telescope (PAIRITEL), for a program monitoring transient events such as supernovas and gamma-ray bursts. The survey was concluded in the late 1990s, making the telescope available to CfA astronomers and collaborators for new projects. 2MASS used two telescopes: the 1.3 Meter Telescope operated by the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, located at the Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory (FLWO) in southern Arizona and an identical instrument operated by the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. The Two Micron All-Sky Survey (2MASS) was an ambitious project to map the entire sky in infrared light, providing a cosmic census of galaxies, star clusters, small Solar System bodies, and many more. ZCAT is an essential resource for data on redshift surveys up to 2008, carrying on the legacy of the original CfA Redshift Surveys conducted in the 1970s and ‘80s. This data provides a map of galaxies in three dimensions, allowing astronomers to piece together how galaxies group on the largest scales in the universe. The CfA Redshift Catalog (ZCAT), created by researchers at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, is a clearinghouse for historical redshift data from a number of observatories, including the 1.5-Meter Tillinghast Telescope and the MMT Observatory, both CfA-operated telescopes located at the Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory (FLWO) in Arizona. That means astronomers can determine the distance to far-away galaxies by measuring the redshift of light they produce. This expansion also stretches the wavelength of light, which astronomers call cosmological redshift, since it pushes visible light colors toward the red end of the spectrum. The universe is expanding, carrying galaxies with it like flotsam on a fast-flowing river. LEARN MORE ABOUT THE GIANT MAGELLAN TELESCOPE Equipped with instrumentation capable of detecting the spectral signature of atmospheric oxygen in distant exoplanets, the GMT may be humanity’s next best chance of discovering signs of life on other worlds. The Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT) will begin a new era of observation in astrophysics, and represents a huge leap forward in the technology used for astronomy. Key research programs of OIR scientists include the large scale structure of the universe, evolution of galaxies in clusters, the explosive activity in galaxy nuclei, the history of star formation in galaxies, the detailed structure of our own Milky Way galaxy and the nearest galaxy, Andromeda, and the study of explosive stars, both near and far. OIR scientists are also major contributors to the design of the Giant Magellan Telescope to be located on Las Campanas, and to two of the instruments under construction that will be used at first light, in 2029.
The OIR division also has provided the Magellan 6.5m Clay telescope with an f/5 secondary mirror and a wide field imager, further enhancing the abilities of that telescope for CfA astronomers.Īstronomers in the division were key players in the development of the NASA Spitzer telescope, providing one of the essential instruments, and have contributed to the design of several subsequent satellites. The Veritas gamma ray array is located at the base of Mt Hopkins, operated by a consortium of universities worldwide. Several robotic telescopes are also located nearby: the HAT project, Minerva, and Mearth, all being run by other groups under the umbrella of the OIR division. OIR operates the Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory on Mt Hopkins in Arizona, which is comprised of the MMT, a 6.5m telescope jointly operated with the University of Arizona, and three smaller telscopes, a 1.5m, a 1.3m and a 1.2m telescope, all using instruments built in the OIR division. One is to operate and develop telescopes and associated instruments and the other is to do forefront research on a wide variety of galactic and extragalactic topics, often but not exclusively using those very telescopes. The Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian Optical and Infrared Astronomy (OIR) division has two major charges.
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