Telescope at South Pole

via ScienceDaily.

Apparently we've built a 10m telescope at the South Pole and it is now operational.

"The telescope stands 75 feet (22.8 meters) tall, measures 33 feet (10 meters) across and weighs 280 tons (254 metric tons). It was assembled in Kilgore, Texas, then taken apart, shipped across the Pacific Ocean to New Zealand, and flown from there to the South Pole. "

The SPT (South Pole Telescope - astronomers have a lot of imagination) is designed to study background microwave radiation, with particular regard to cosmological conditions of the universe immediately after the Big Bang. The south polar region is ideally suited for such observations due to the lack of water vapor in the atmosphere because of the cold conditions there. The SPT's first study will be to study how dark matter may have altered the formation of galactic clusters right after the formation of the universe. Astronomers can scan thousands of such clusters in just a few years with their new tool.

Pretty cool.