The search for the best observatory site in the world has led to the discovery of what is thought to be the coldest, driest and calmest place on earth.
The search for the best observatory site in the world has led to the discovery of what is thought to be the coldest, driest and calmest place on earth.
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No human is thought to have ever been there but it is expected to yield images of the heavens three times sharper than ever taken from the ground. The site known as Ridge A is 4,053 metres high up on the Antarctic Plateau.
"It is extremely calm... there is very little of the atmospheric turbulence elsewhere that makes stars appear to twinkle," said Will Saunders of the Anglo-Australian Observatory and visiting professor at University of New South Wales (UNSW).
"The astronomical images taken at Ridge A should be at least three times sharper than at the best sites currently used by astronomers," said Saunders, who led the study.
"Because the sky there is so much darker and drier, it means that a modestly-sized telescope there would be as powerful as the largest telescopes anywhere else on earth," he adds.
The joint US-Australian research team combined data from satellites, ground stations and climate models in a study to assess the many factors that affect astronomy - cloud cover, temperature, sky-brightness, water vapour, wind speeds and atmospheric turbulence.
The study revealed that Ridge A has an average winter temperature of minus 70 degrees Celsius and that the water content of the entire atmosphere there is sometimes less than the thickness of a human hair, said a UNSW release.
The finding was published in the Publications of the Astronomical Society.
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