Harvard Scientists Plan New Telescopes

The Harvard/Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics is drawing up plans for an unprecedented set of six telescopes designed to record radiation waves not visible to the human eye. If the project gets center approval and its backers can drum up the necessary federal funding, the telescopes, expected to cost about $20 million, would be the first of their kind.

The project is aimed at unraveling the mysteries of a host of yet unexplored phenomena including quasars and "exploding galaxies," said James Cornell, director of public relations at the Center for Astrophysics.

Cornell said the telescope is the center's response to a national need in astronomy to advance the study of unexplored regions and stellar occurrences using "sub-millimeter waves"--radiation with a wavelength of less than a millimeter. "This is the spearhead of a national drive in astrophysics to advance study in this area," he said.

High and Dry

A location for the telescope has not yet been selected because of the stiff requirements--telescopes demand an area that is high, dry and flat. Possible sites include Mauna Kea in Hawaii, Mt. Graham in Arizona, and Mt. Jelm in Wyoming.

Irwin Shapiro, director of the center, said that detailed plans for the project are now being drawn up with the expectation of center approval and federal support. He estimated that the project would "take form around 1990."

Resolution

The telescopes--six meters in diameter and movable on a y-shaped track to bring distant objects in space into focus--would be capable of producing previously unattained "resolution." That is, they would have the ability to visually separate close objects in space which currently appear only as a blur of light, Cornell said.

Some of the phenomena astronomers hope to probe include dense clouds of celestial dust where new stars are being formed and "cool stars" which eject gas into interstellar space. The telescopes will also allow more accurate measurement of distant objects in space.

"We've gone far beyond pointing out where the planets are. That's not our bag. We want to study the physics behind the phenomena," Cornell said.

Radiation

All objects emit radiation, but not all radiation is visible, and sub-millimeter waves cannot be seen with the naked eye. Moreover, sub-millimeter waves do not even reach Earth because they are absorbed by water vapor in the atmosphere.

Yet, at high altitudes and with the aid of sophisticated computer techniques, which have been developed only recently, the six telescopes will be able to examine the "last unexplained bank of the electromagnetic spectrum," Shapiro said.

Singles

Currently, a number of other universities are planning to build single sub-millimeter telescopes. But by using six telescopes, the center's plan would allow them to attain anywhere from 10 to 100 times the resolution of single telescope plans, Cornell said.

"It still needs lots of negotiation," he said, adding. "There is nothing like this yet developed."