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 deg$^2$ 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, Nancy Grace Roman
Space Telescope, SPHEREx, and NEO Surveyor. 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. We plan to deploy the
Cryoscope Pathfinder to Dome C in December 2026 and the full-scale telescope by
2030.
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