Astronomers at Cambridge are building a new kind of telescope that can see details on stars and in the centres of galaxies that are invisible to any existing instrument. The project addresses a fundamental gap in our understanding of how the universe formed its largest structures—galaxies and clusters of galaxies—and how stars and planets are born. By studying the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation, the faint radio echo of the Big Bang, the team will look for imprints of structure created in the first fraction of a second of the universe’s existence. They will also search for the earliest galaxy clusters by detecting the shadows they cast on that radiation. This is primarily curiosity-driven fundamental science. There is no immediate practical application. However, the work pioneers the technique of optical interferometry—an imaging method originally developed for radio astronomy—which could eventually find uses in high-resolution imaging for manufacturing, defence, or medical diagnostics. The team is also developing methods to let interferometric telescopes observe more sky at once, a capability that will benefit a wide range of future astronomical research.
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This research is aimed at undertaking and answering fundamental questions about the universe and its history. At the same time we will develop new techniques and instruments to help answer future questions. We address many of the frontier questions in astrophysics. These include: how did the universe get to be how it is? What were the processes that led to the development of the largest structures in the universe? What were the seed conditions that led to galaxies and clusters of galaxies existing today? We can study these questions by looking at the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation (CMBR), radio waves which were emitted soon after the 'Big Bang'. Part of our work is to study the waves to find the imprints of structure formed in the first fraction of a second of the universe's existence. We can also find the earliest forming clusters of galaxies by looking for the 'shadows' they cast on the CMBR. Big advances in astronomy come from the introduction of new techniques, and we want to continue to pioneer the application of the technique of interferometry. This imaging technique was initially developed in our group of radio astronomy, but we are now developing it for astronomy at visible wavelengths. This work will complete the development of an interferometer which will be able to see details in stars and the centres of galaxies which cannot be seen in any other way. We also aim to advance the use of interferometry in radio astronomy by developing techniques to allow interferometric telescopes to observe more of the sky at a given time. This has applications in a wide range of astronomy research. We aim to answer fundamental questions about how stars are formed, by using instruments which can see large numbers of stars at early stages of formation. We also plan to use telescopes which are coming on line in the next few years to see the formation of stars and planets in other solar systems in unprecedented detail. By using data from recently developed telescopes, we will start looking at how magnetic fields are structured in galaxies and within clusters of galaxies. This will allow us to look at the role played by magnetism in these regions.
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