CCAT prime

The CCAT project continues to evolve: the team is currently studying the building of a smaller telescope at the observatory site before embarking on the full CCAT telescope.  This smaller telescope, currently named CCAT Prime (CCAT-p), will be
6 meters in diameter and achieve a high quality and very wide field of view. The science case for such a telescope is very strong. This would also allow the team to develop the site, gain experience working at such a high altitude, and test instruments under development for CCAT.

The CCAT site is an immense asset that the team wants to fully utilize. At 5600 meters above sea level in the Atacama Desert in northern Chile, the transparency of the atmosphere is unique. The fact that CCAT, via its partner Associated Universities Inc, is the owner of a concession providing for the use of this site for astronomy, gives CCAT-p a unique capability that cannot be equaled through technological advancements.

Stay tuned as CCAT continues to move forward in its quest to pursue scientific discoveries of galaxy formation and evolution; star formation, protoplanetary disks, and Milky Way debris disks, and Kuiper belt objects. The goal of CCAT continues to be the creation of a next-generation submillimeter telescope combining high sensitivity, a wide field of view, and a broad wavelength range to provide an unprecedented capability for deep, large area multicolor submillimeter surveys.

The Board of Directors continues to seek out and welcome new partners interested in submillimeter and millimeter astronomy.