Tokyo Atacama Observatory Opens As World’s Highest Altitude Infrared Telescope

Although we have a gaggle of space telescopes floating around these days, there is still a lot of value in ground-based telescopes. These generally operate in the visible light spectrum, but infrared ground-based telescopes can also work on Earth, assuming that you put them somewhere high in an area where the atmosphere is short on infrared-radiation absorbing moisture. The newly opened Universe of Tokyo Atacama Observatory (TAO) with its 6.5 meter silver-coated primary mirror is therefore placed on the summit of Cerro Chajnantor at 5,640 meters, in the Atacama desert in Chile.


This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://hackaday.com/2024/05/06/tokyo-atacama-observatory-opens-as-worlds-highest-altitude-infrared-telescope/