2022/07/08 by Joanna Ramasawmy, Ramasawmy, Joanna, Pamela Klaassen +25
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #FOS: Physical sciences #Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM) #Superconducting and THz Device Technology
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2207.03914
openalex publication_date 2022/07/08 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The Atacama Large Aperture Submillimeter Telescope (AtLAST) is a concept for a 50m class single-dish telescope that will provide high sensitivity, fast mapping of the (sub-)millimeter sky. Expected to be powered by renewable energy sources, and to be constructed in the Atacama desert in the 2030s, AtLAST's suite of up to six state-of-the-art instruments will take advantage of its large field of view and high throughput to deliver efficient continuum and spectroscopic observations of the faint, large-scale emission that eludes current facilities. Here we present the key science drivers for the telescope characteristics, and discuss constraints that the transformational science goals place on future instrumentation.