Astronomers to Coldly Go Where No-one Has Gone Before/Canada Foundationfor Innovation Invests Over $12M in Space Exploration (Forwarded)

Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council
Swindon, U.K.

Contacts:

Gill Ormrod
PPARC Press Office
Tel: 01793 442012, Email:

Eleanor Gilchrist
Royal Observatory Edinburgh Press Officer
Tel: 0131 668 8397, Email:

Damian Audley
UK ATC - SCUBA 2 Instrument Scientist
Tel: 0131 668 8364, Email:

Suzanne Quinn
External relations, Canada Federation for Innovation
Tel: 001 613 996 3160, Email:

Professor Walter Gear
Head of the Astronomical Instrument Group
University of Wales Cardiff
Tel: 02920 875526, Email:

Professor Mike Fich
Canadian Consortium Principle Investigator
University of Waterloo
Tel: +1 519 888 4567 x2725, Email:

Dr Douglas Pierce Price
James Clerk Maxwell Telescope
Tel: +1 808 969 6524, Email:

26 September 2003

Astronomers to Coldly Go Where No-one Has Gone Before

Astronomers are poised to take another giant leap into some of the coldest
regions of space following the announcement that Canada will join the UK in
developing a new generation camera for the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT)
in Hawaii -- the world's largest telescope for studying astronomy at
sub-millimetre wavelengths.

The announcement today (26 September 2003) of a grant of £5.5 million (12.3
million Canadian Dollars) from the Canadian Foundation for Innovation will
contribute to the development of a new instrument, SCUBA 2. The UK, through the
Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (PPARC) will also contribute
some £4 million to the development of the instrument with a further £2.3 million
coming from the JCMT partner Agencies contributions (UK, Canada and the
Netherlands).

The project is lead by the UK Astronomy Technology Centre (UK ATC) at the Royal
Observatory, Edinburgh. The new instrument will supersede the original
groundbreaking Sub-millimetre Common User Bolometer Array (SCUBA) frequently
cited as one of the most important ground-based astronomical instruments ever.
SCUBA was also designed and constructed at the Royal Observatory, Edinburgh in
collaboration with Queen Mary, University of London.

Professor Ian Halliday, Chief Executive of PPARC commented: "SCUBA 2 will enable
the JCMT to maintain its position as one of the world's leading facilities in
the exotic field of sub-millimetre astronomy. We are delighted that our Canadian
colleagues have joined with us to spearhead its development."

Dr Wayne Holland, SCUBA 2 Project scientist at the UK ATC said: "To work in this
challenging field requires special techniques and cutting-edge technology. With
a much larger field of view and the capability to limit background 'noise',
SCUBA 2 will map large areas of sky up to 1000 times faster than the current
SCUBA camera. Sub-millimetre detectors must be cooled to a fraction of a degree
above absolute zero (-273 decrees C). The UK ATC has considerable experience of
producing electrical and optical systems that deliver a high level of
performance at these extreme temperatures."

Dr Adrian Russell, Director of the UK ATC said: "SCUBA 2 will be a second
revolution in sub-millimetre astronomy and will build on the ground-breaking
science that its predecessor SCUBA (1) has already delivered. The JCMT community
will have access to a tremendously powerful tool which will not only carry out
world class science, but will put them in an enviable position to exploit the
new ALMA telescope when it comes online. "

Sub-millimetre astronomy is a new and rapidly developing field that allows
scientists to probe the composition of comets, the birthplaces of stars and the
most distant galaxies. Sub-millimetre wavelengths lie between those of
traditional radio astronomy and those of the newer but now fairly well
understood infrared astronomy. Astronomers detect light at sub-millimetre
wavelengths in order to penetrate clouds of cosmic dust.

The vast majority of light from young galaxies in the distant universe is
absorbed by dust, and is only observable by astronomers at sub-millimetre
wavelengths. The quantity of dust in young galaxies reveals whether stars formed
gradually, or mainly in sudden bursts, in the early history of the Universe.

SCUBA 2 will actually have two cameras -- each operating simultaneously at a
different wavelength in the sub-millimetre band. The 6400 pixels in each camera
will cover an 8 x 8 arc-minute patch of sky (about a third of the full moon) or
some 16 times the area of the existing SCUBA instrument. The improved
sensitivity and imaging power will mean that observations that now take weeks of
telescope time with SCUBA will be made in only a few tens of minutes.

Images

Images of the SCUBA 2 sub array test piece, SCUBA 2 and the JCMT are available
from the PPARC website
http://www.pparc.ac.uk/ap/press/images.asp

The Collaboration

Development of SCUBA 2 will be led by the UK ATC at the Royal Observatory,
Edinburgh in collaboration with groups at the University of Wales Astronomical
Instrument Group, Cardiff, the Scottish Microelectronics Centre at the
University of Edinburgh, the United States National Institute for Standards and
Technology at Boulder, Colorado and a consortium of nine Canadian Universities
led by Professor Mike Fich at the University of Waterloo, Ontario.

In addition contributions to the SCUBA 2 design and development are being made
by Leiden University and the National Institute of Astronomy, The Netherlands.

The UK ATC will carry out the design and development of the instrument optics,
cryogenic cooling systems, super-cooled electronics and software and the
necessary interfacing of the instrument to the existing JCMT computer control
systems.

The Astronomical Instrument Group at the Department of Physics and Astronomy of
the University of Wales will carry out the detailed design, development and
manufacture of the Focal Plane Unit. They will also conduct optical testing of
the prototype arrays and support commissioning of the instrument at the telescope.

The Canadian Universities consortium will assume responsibility for the
construction and testing of the detector array control and 'room temperature'
electronics. They will also develop the software for these electronics along
with image processing and archiving software.

The Canadian Consortium will also make their own unique contribution to the
project by the design, development and manufacture of two scientific
instruments, a polarimeter and a Fourier Transform Spectrometer (FTS), which
will enhance the science capability of the SCUBA 2 instrument. The polarimeter
will enable SCUBA 2 to probe magnetic fields that exist during star formation.
The FTS will enable astronomers to use SCUBA 2 to study the existence and
abundance of different types of molecules within star forming regions.

Sub-millimetre Astronomy

The relatively recent development of ground-based sub-millimetre astronomy can
be attributed to two main factors: atmospheric limitations and the lack of key
technologies. Even from dry high-altitude sites most of the sub-millimetre
radiation from space is absorbed by the atmosphere and the sky itself emits vast
amounts of sub-millimetre radiation which drowns the faint signals from space.
However, enormous technological advances have been made during the past decade.
Single-dish telescopes (looking rather like radio telescopes or satellite dishes
10-15 metres in diameter) are now routinely operating in the sub-millimetre. On
the other hand, instrumentation has only recently advanced from the single-pixel
photometer to the first generation multi-element arrays.

The impact of the first SCUBA camera on the 15m JCMT has been immense. In
particular, it has led to major advances in our understanding of the how
planets, stars and galaxies form. In cosmology SCUBA has been described as
having an impact "as big or bigger than the Hubble Space Telescope" having shown
that the far infrared/sub-millimetre background is in fact composed of the
combined light from distant dusty galaxies. The value of SCUBA is demonstrated
by a recent survey carried out by the Space Telescope Science Institute, in
which SCUBA came a close second to the Hubble Space Telescope in terms of
scientific impact. However, despite making several pioneering breakthroughs in
this previously unexplored field, it is fair to say that SCUBA has really only
given us a glimpse of what is still to come. With only 128 pixels in two arrays,
surveying large areas of sky, or imaging to any great depth, is still painfully
slow.

James Clerk Maxwell Telescope

The JCMT is the world's largest single-dish submillimetre telescope. It collects
faint submillimetre signals with its 15 metre diameter dish. It is situated near
the summit of Mauna Kea on the Big Island of Hawaii, at an altitude of
approximately 4000 metres (14000 feet) above sea level. It is operated by the
Joint Astronomy Centre, on behalf of the UK Particle Physics and Astronomy
Research Council, the Canadian National Research Council, and the Netherlands
Organisation for Scientific Research.

UK Astronomy Technology Centre

The UK Astronomy Technology Centre is located at the Royal Observatory,
Edinburgh (ROE). It is a scientific site belonging to the Particle Physics and
Astronomy Research Council (PPARC). The mission of the UK ATC is to support the
mission and strategic aims of PPARC and to help keep the UK at the forefront of
world astronomy by providing a UK focus for the design, production and promotion
of state of the art astronomical technology.

Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI)

The CFI is an independent corporation established by the Government of Canada in
1997. The Foundation's goal is to strengthen the capability of Canadian
universities, colleges, research hospitals, and other not-for-profit
institutions to carry out world-class research and technology development. By
investing in research infrastructure projects, the CFI supports research
excellence, and helps strengthen research training at institutions across Canada.

ALMA

The Atacama Large Millimetre Array (ALMA) is an international collaboration
between Europe and the North America to build a synthesis radio telescope that
will operate at millimetre and sub-millimetre wavelengths. Since joining the
European Southern Observatory (ESO) in July 2002 the UK is set to benefit from
increased involvement in the design, construction and scientific discoveries of
the ALMA, a network of 64 twelve-metre radio telescopes to be sited in Chile.
For further information please see
http://www.eso.org/projects/alma/

Websites

* The Astronomy Technology Centre SCUBA 2 website
http://www.roe.ac.uk/atc/projects/scuba_two/index.html
* Canada Foundation for Innovation website
http://www.innovation.ca
* The James Clerk Maxwell Telescope website
http://outreach.jach.hawaii.edu/

*****

Canada Foundation for Innovation
Ottawa, Canada

For more information:

Valérie Poulin
Coordinator, Media Relations
Canada Foundation for Innovation
(613) 996-3160

Mylène Dupéré
Press Secretary
Office of Allan Rock
Minister of Industry
(613) 995-9001

Daphne Guerrero
Office of Dr. Rey Pagtakhan
Secretary of State
(Science, Research & Development)
(613) 995-1333

Jim Fox
Media Relations
University of Waterloo
(519) 888-4444

September 26, 2003

The CFI Invests Over $12M in Space Exploration

WATERLOO -- Today, Dr. David Strangway, President and CEO of the Canada
Foundation for Innovation (CFI) and Allan Rock, Minister of Industry and
Minister responsible for the Canada Foundation for Innovation, announced a CFI
investment of $12.3 million for the development of a next generation
Submillimetre Common User Bolometer Array (SCUBA) camera for astronomers.

SCUBA-2 is a tremendous leap forward for space exploration research enabling
researchers to do in one night what currently takes three years. The camera will
have unprecedented imaging speed and access to a much wider field of view,
enabling its users to look at such research issues as the early history of star
formation as well as the structure, formation, and clustering of galaxies.

"This project represents priority areas of research in Canadian radio astronomy
-- areas which are fast moving and internationally competitive," said Minister
Rock. "Funding from the CFI has enabled our Canadian researchers to gain access
to unique research facilities and is placing Canada among the world's most
innovative nations."

"SCUBA-2 is a major technological collaboration which will develop a broader
electronics capability in Canada," said Dr. David Strangway, President and CEO
of the CFI. "Today's announcement represents an important boost for our Canadian
institutions to further their research and become international leaders in the
field of astronomy."

The funds were awarded to a consortium of eight universities, administratively
led by the University of Waterloo. This program involves direct collaboration
with the University of Edinburgh and the University of Wales (Cardiff). In
addition, expertise will be provided by the National Institute of Standards and
Technology (NIST), a leading U.S. research institution which has unique
expertise in that area. Operationally, the program will involve collaboration
with the U.K., the Netherlands, and the University of Hawaii, using the James
Clerk Maxwell Telescope.

"The CFI investment allows our Canadian institutions to further their research
missions and provides the opportunity to showcase the best of Canadian research
in a global context," said Dr. Rey Pagtakhan, Minister of Veteran's Affairs and
Secretary of State (Science, Research and Development).

Today's funding announcement is the second of nine large-scale international
research projects under the CFI's International Access Fund aimed at offering
Canadian researchers access to world-class research collaborations and
facilities located around the world.

The CFI is an independent corporation established by the Government of Canada in
1997 to strengthen the capacity of Canadian universities, colleges, research
hospitals, and other non-profit research organizations to carry out world-class
research and technology development.

[NOTE: A backgrounder is available at
http://www.innovation.ca/media/26.09.2003/bg_e.pdf (30KB)

A video supporting this release is available at
http://www.innovation.ca/video/scuba2.wmv (31MB)]