Extending to the Submillimeter Universe with the CCAT Observatory

TL;DR

The CCAT Observatory's 6-meter submillimeter telescope, set for 2026, will significantly enhance cosmic and galactic observations with advanced detectors and mapping capabilities, complementing existing millimeter surveys.

Contribution

This paper introduces the CCAT Observatory and Prime-Cam instrument, highlighting their innovative design and capabilities for high-speed, wide-area submillimeter observations.

Findings

Prime-Cam will have over 100,000 detectors.

The telescope will enable ten times faster mapping than previous observatories.

It will cover 1.4 - 0.3 mm wavelength windows.

Abstract

The CCAT Observatory's Fred Young Submillimeter Telescope, a novel, high-throughput, 6-meter aperture telescope, is scheduled for first light in 2026. Located at 5600 m on Cerro Chajnantor in the Chilean Atacama Desert, the CCAT site enables unprecedented submillimeter measurement capabilities, fully overlapping with millimeter-wave surveys like the Simons Observatory. CCAT will address a suite of science goals, from Big Bang cosmology, star formation, and line-intensity mapping of cosmic reionization, to galactic magnetic fields, transients, and galaxy evolution over cosmic time. We highlight CCAT's science goals with Prime-Cam, a first generation science instrument for the Fred Young Submillimeter Telescope. Prime-Cam will field over 100,000 kinetic inductance detectors across seven instrument modules to enable over ten times faster mapping speed than previous submillimeter observatories in windows between 1.4 - 0.3 mm (220 - 850 GHz). We give an instrument summary, discuss the project status, and outline preliminary plans for early science.