The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has developed a powerful new submillimeter camera called SCUBA-2, which will be mounted on the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope in Hawaii. This camera, containing over 10,000 of NIST’s superconducting sensors, is far more sensitive than its predecessor and will enable astronomers to map the sky hundreds of times faster and with a much larger field of view. SCUBA-2 will produce better images and sky maps, image new targets, and support deeper and broader surveys. The camera is sensitive to objects associated with very cold gas and dust clouds, which emit submillimeter radiation at wavelengths below 1 millimeter. The NIST sensors precisely measure submillimeter radiated power using a superconducting metal that changes resistance in response to heat from radiation. Each tiny but powerful sensor functions as a single pixel in the camera.
Keywords: superconducting, submillimeter, sensor, radiation, amplifiers
