AtLAST

Atacama Large Aperture Sub-millimeter Telescope

AtLAST: the future sub-mm single dish telescope

We participate in the design studies for a next generation 50-meter class single-dish astronomical observatory operating at sub-millimeter and millimeter wavelengths.

  • Located at the Chajnantor plateau in Chile, excellent site for sub-mm observations
  • With a large main-dish aperture: 50-m class
  • With a large FoV (> 1 square degree)
  • Powered by renewable energy
  • Run as a facility observatory
  • Addresses a broad variety of scientific cases

To know all about the project, visit the web site of AtLAST:  www.atlast.uio.no

Design of the 50-meter Atacama Large Aperture Submm Telescope

T. Mroczkowski et al. 2024, subm. to A&A (arXiv:2402.18645)

Design studies funded by EU

The design study is carried out by an international consortium of European universities, research institutes and industry, and it is led by the Institute of Theoretical Astrophysics at the University of Oslo.

AtLAST has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 951815.

UCM has participated “in-kind” to the project so far, with focus on the definition of various science cases and in the development of the Operations Plan, one of the deliverables of the AtLAST project.

Towards more sustainable operations

The design studies include a work package dedicated to Telescope Operations (WP4) with strong involvement from our group.

We are proposing a modern operations plan for AtLAST based on elements that we consider key:

  • Sustainability
  • Transparency
  • Community Involvement
  • Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
  • Safety
  • Lean, high performance model.

Overview talk of the AtLAST operations plan at the conference “The Atacama Large Aperture Submillimiter Telescope (AtLAST) design study: results, science, and next steps” held in Mainz, Germany (May 2024).

AtLAST's science drivers

AtLAST will address a broad range of science cases, proposed by the community. These determine the design specifications of the observatory. Check the AtLAST collection in Open Research Europe.