This arises a good three decades after the original idea by researchers at the University of Cologne and Cornell University Fred Young Submillimeter Telescope (FYST) over the Atacama Desert, near the summit of Cerro Chajnantor in Chile’s Parque Astronomico Atacama. At an altitude of 5,640 meters above sea level – higher than Mount Everest’s base camp – FYST lies above most of the atmospheric layers that prevent submillimeter waves from reaching the ground. The extremely dry air of the Atacama Desert ensures ideal conditions, as the signals here are hardly affected by sources of interference such as water vapor.
Working in the submillimeter wavelength range will enable filming of the starry sky in a previously unexplored area of ​​the electromagnetic spectrum. The telescope will help answer some of the most important questions in astronomy, such as how the universe works, what dark energy and dark matter are made of, how galaxies form and evolve, and what happened in the mysterious first moments after the Big Bang.