SPIREX — Near Infrared Astronomy from the South Pole

Abstract

Over the next several years we will deploy a series of spectrometers, imagers, and telescopes at the South Pole as part of a project named SPIREX — for South Pole Infrared Explorer. Our goal is to survey a substantial area of the sky to study the origins of galaxies and stars.

From space, the zodiacal light is the limiting source of noise over a wide range of wavelengths. It has a minimum in the near infrared: the reflected sunlight is diminishing with wavelength and reradiated thermal emission from the warm dust is on the rise. For this and other reasons, the near infrared is potentially the best window in which to carry out deep surveys of galaxies.

On the ground, the sensitivity of observations in the near infrared is limited by the Poisson noise of the large background flux from the atmosphere and telescope. Within a restricted wavelength range, this background depends only on two parameters: their temperature and emissivity. By building very low emissivity telescopes and operating them in the bitter cold of the Antarctic winter we expect to make observations that will rival in sensitivity those attainable from cooled space-based telescopes.