At 18,400 feet above sea level, Cerro Chajnantor in Chile is one of the most extreme scientific workplaces on Earth. It’s home to the newly inaugurated Fred Young Submillimeter Telescope (FYST). Duke physicist Eve Vavagiakis is helping deploy its powerful first-light camera, which is designed to capture some of the universe's faintest signals.
FYST is the flagship telescope of the Cornell University-led CCAT Observatory. Duke is the only U.S.-based institutional partner in the project outside of Cornell.
Eve Vavagiakis
Vavagiakis, an assistant professor of Physics and an alumna of Cornell, leads Duke’s contributions to Prime-Cam, FYST’s powerful camera. Prime-Cam is designed to measure faint signals from across cosmic history, including light dating back to the universe’s earliest moments.
The telescope will map large regions of the sky with unprecedented speed and sensitivity, helping researchers study everything from the formation of galaxies to dark matter and dark energy.
Watch the video of Vavagiakis – prepared with oxygen, sunglasses and a hat – in the extreme environment of San Pedro de Atacama on Trinity College of Arts & Sciences.
