Chile’s APEX telescope gets new bolometers

Leti is gearing up to deliver sixteen bolometer matrices with wavelengths of 200, 350, and 450 microns for the APEX telescope in Chile. The telescope, located at 5,100 meters above sea level on the Chajnantor plateau, already boasts four 350-micron matrices delivered by Leti in June 2013.
The bolometers serve as the eyes of the Artemis camera installed on the telescope. They are cooled to 300 mK in a cryostat developed at INAC’s low-temperature lab (SBT). The IFRU Astrophysics Laboratory (Saclay), also the project lead, integrated components like the optics, filters, and electronics. Leti’s matrices will boost the equipment’s current speeds by a factor of three, revealing details—like gas clouds involved in the formation of stars—that have been invisible until now.

Contact: wilfried.rabaud@cea.fr

 

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