Institutions Agree to Join Atacama Telescope Project

The University of Colorado at Boulder and the United Kingdom Astronomy Technology Centre have agreed to join the CCAT (Cornell Caltech Atacama Telescope) consortium, Cornell University announced yesterday. The two have committed to pursue formal partnership and to identify the sources for full funding of the project. The $100 million CCAT is a proposed 25-meter aperture telescope that will be the largest, most precise and highest astronomical facility in the world, Cornell said. To be built in the Cerro Chajnantor in the Atacama Desert region in Chile, the telescope will allow astronomers to peek into the early universe to explore the process of galaxy formation. Cornell and the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) began collaborating on the project in 2004 and are each responsible of 25 percent of the cost. Planners hope to begin construction this year and to see first light in 2013.