The Viper telescope was mainly used to view
cosmic background radiation
Cosmic background radiation is electromagnetic radiation from the Big Bang. The origin of this radiation depends on the region of the spectrum that is observed. One component is the cosmic microwave background. This component is redshifted pho ...
.
[ First operational in 1998, the ]telescope
A telescope is a device used to observe distant objects by their emission, absorption, or reflection of electromagnetic radiation. Originally meaning only an optical instrument using lenses, curved mirrors, or a combination of both to observe ...
was used to help scientists prove or disprove the Big Crunch
The Big Crunch is a hypothetical scenario for the ultimate fate of the universe, in which the expansion of the universe eventually reverses and the universe recollapses, ultimately causing the cosmic scale factor to reach zero, an event potential ...
theory. The telescope was at the time also one of the most powerful of its kind. Previous cosmic background telescopes were smaller and less sensitive. It was decommissioned in 2005.
Location
The Viper telescope was located at the Center for Astrophysical Research, also known as (CARA) in the Amundsen-Scott station in Antarctica
Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest contine ...
. The Viper project was run by many scientists; team leader Dr. Jeffrey Peterson is a Carnegie Mellon astrophysicist.
References
External links
National Science FoundationHarvard
Cosmic microwave background experiments
Interferometric telescopes
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