Kavli Affiliate: Robert A. Simcoe
| First 5 Authors: Mansi M. Kasliwal, Nicholas Earley, Roger Smith, Tristan Guillot, Tony Travouillon
| Summary:
We present Cryoscope — a new 50 sq. deg field-of-view, 1.2 m aperture,
K-dark survey telescope to be located at Dome C, Antarctica. Cryoscope has an
innovative optical-thermal design wherein the entire telescope is cryogenically
cooled. Cryoscope also explores new detector technology to cost-effectively
tile the full focal plane. Leveraging the dark Antarctic sky and minimizing
telescope thermal emission, Cryoscope achieves unprecedented deep, wide, fast
and red observations, matching and exceeding volumetric survey speeds from the
Ultraviolet Explorer, Vera Rubin Observatory, and Nancy Grace Roman Space
Telescope. By providing coverage beyond wavelengths of 2 $mu$m, we aim to
create the most comprehensive dynamic movie of the most obscured reaches of the
Universe. Cryoscope will be a dedicated discovery engine for electromagnetic
emission from coalescing compact binaries, Earth-like exoplanets orbiting cold
stars, and multiple facets of time-domain, stellar and solar system science. In
this paper, we describe the scientific drivers and technical innovations for
this new discovery engine operating in the K-dark passband, why we choose to
deploy it in Antarctica, and the status of a fifth-scale prototype designed as
a Pathfinder to retire technological risks prior to full-scale implementation.
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