A telescope located there “would have sharper images and could detect fainter objects,” said one of the study’s authors.
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A team of researchers from China, Australia and Canada discovered the best place from Earth to observe the stars, communicated this Wednesday the University of British Columbia (UBC).
As revealed by scientists, this site is located in the Antarctica, one of the most remote and coldest regions on the planet. Dome A, the highest ice dome on the Antarctic plateau, located near the center of East Antarctica, 1,200 kilometers inland from the continent, could offer the clearer view of the stars at night, he says a study, published in the journal Nature.
“A telescope located on Dome A could outperform a similar telescope located on any other astronomical site on the planet,” said Paul Hickson, an astronomer at the Canadian university and co-author of the study, who explained that the combination of “high altitude, low temperature Long periods of continuous darkness and an exceptionally stable atmosphere “make that point”a very attractive place for optical and infrared astronomy“A telescope located there would have sharper images and could detect fainter objects,” he added.
The researchers explained that one of the biggest obstacles to terrestrial astronomy is the effect of atmospheric turbulence, which is reflected in the quality of the telescope images and makes the stars twinkle. This effect on the images of astronomical objects, which denotes the distortion of the night sky, is called ‘astronomical visibility’ and is measured in seconds of arc.
Currently, the highest performing observatories are located in Chile and Hawaii and offer astronomical visibility of 0.6 to 0.8 arcseconds. For its part, Antarctica has the potential for better observation, due to less turbulence in the atmosphere, with the estimated astronomical visibility of 0.13 to 0.31 arcseconds in Dome A.
“The thinner boundary layer of Dome A makes it less difficult to locate a telescope above it, thus giving greater access to the free atmosphere,” concluded Bin Ma, lead author of the study.
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