Astronomy in Antarctica, current projects, future goals and challenges

Abstract

If you were to ask an astronomer to define the perfect place to locate a telescope, they'd tell you to have it somewhere cold, dark, at high-altitude, with a local climate that contained dry stable air. In short, Antarctica. In New Zealand for example adverse effects, such as the movement air in our atmosphere, can cause images to wiggle and warp, such as the observable twinkling of a star in the night sky. Antarctic astronomy, including the operation of the South Pole Telescope, located at Amundsen Station, can largely overcome these problems. In taking advantage of the cold dark skies, these telescopes are able to probe the deep reaches of space, in order to answer some of the fundamental questions related to the universe, including the search for theoretical dark matter and dark energy. Other less conventional astronomy related projects in Antarctica include the 'Ice Cube array'. This uses ultrasensitive light detectors, buried over a mile deep in the Antarctic ice sheet, to detect high-energy neutrinos that were created by the most violent events in the universe, which allow astronomers to visualize distant cosmic events by detecting the neutrinos they create. Other scoping studies have have identified several high altitude sites in East Antarctica such as those at Dome A and 'Dome C' where there is the potential to locate a very large optical or Infra-Red telescope for the search of earth-like planets in other solar systems. Housing such complex equipment in these remote areas, as well as keeping the stations supplied and maintained, is not a simple task and this review will examine the science produced, technical challenges that have to be overcome, potential environmental impacts, as well as examining whether the science produced is worth the costs and resources involved.