NANTEN2

From 2008 to 2018, our group participated in the NANTEN2 observatory, which is located at 4865 m altitude on Pampa la Bola in the Atacama desert, Chile.  NANTEN2 has been an important infrastructure within our CRC 956 (2011-2022), providing a platform for pilot studies at summ wavelengths, hands-on student training, and the development and testing of receiver technology.

Equipped with a 4-m submillimeter telescope, NANTEN2 was used to survey the southern sky in molecular and atomic spectral lines between 110 and 880 GHz (2.6 mm to 350 micron wavelength). The highest observing frequencies are covered by the KOSMA SMART receiver, a dual-frequency, 2x8 pixel array receiver operating between 460 and 880 GHz.

The NANTEN2 observatory (NANTEN is japanese for southern sky, 南天 nan = south, ten = heaven, sky) was a collaboration between research institutes in Japan (Nagoya and Osaka University), South Korea (Seoul National University), Germany (Universität zu Köln, Universität Bonn), Switzerland (ETH Zürich), University of New South Wales (UNSW), and Chile (Universidad de Chile).