Durban – Faced with the option of swapping the warmer climes of the East Coast for the frigid temperatures of the Antarctic – where the mercury dips to 30 degrees below zero – a local astrophysicist did not hesitate.
Dr Cynthia Chiang, of the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Astrophysics and Cosmology Research Unit, spent the past two months in the brutal frozen desert where she participated in Spider, a project studying the earliest moments of the universe’s creation.
The university said in a press release that six telescopes were launched into the stratosphere with a giant helium-filled balloon, which swelled to roughly the size of Durban’s King’s Park stadium at its 35km cruising altitude.
“From this lofty height, it observed the faint leftover heat from the Big Bang. This afterglow, known as the cosmic microwave background, contains valuable clues that will help unravel the mysteries of our universe’s explosive beginnings.”
The multi-million dollar project was named for the multiple telescopes in the vessel, resembling a spider’s multiple eyes, and for the fact that the instrument hung from the balloon – just like a spider dangles from a thread as it spins its web.
Chiang joined the collaboration in 2009 as a post-doctoral research fellow at Princeton University.
She was responsible for testing and operating its cryostat, a large vessel that housed the six telescopes and cooled them to -270ºC using 1 000 litres of liquid helium.
The cameras needed to be kept cold for them to work optimally.
It was launched on January 1 and spent 17 days in flight.
The team members are currently planning a recovery mission to the payload’s landing site in west Antarctica, where they aim to retrieve the hard drives that contain the data.
For Illinois-born Chiang, the project represented the culmination of almost 13 years of hard work in the field since 2002.
“Observational cosmology is very special because it seeks to understand and answer questions humanity has asked itself since the dawn of mankind, questions about where we came from, what our universe is made of and where we’re going,” she said. “It has universal appeal.”
Chiang has worked on other noted teams such as the High Frequency Instrument core team and on Bicep, a ground-based microwave telescope.
She said that she had found the science “tremendously interesting”, but also enjoyed that the field married her other interests, which included doing puzzles and building things.
“We often joke that because this field has a bit of everything, it’s perfect for people with short attention spans!” Chiang said.
The astrophysics lecturer – who has been based at UKZN since August 2013 – enjoyed being involved in every aspect of constructing a telescope, from designing it to cutting the metal, and to building it.
“The team is involved at every level, including hardware and software, and analysis of data,” she said.
The project had been nearly 10 years in the making and had been first proposed in 2005.
“There is nothing like working in Antarctica. I love it.
“The only challenge is making the most of your time there.
“The telescope came in separate pieces in crates, so it had to be assembled before the summer was over,” she said.
She said she had been drawn to South Africa because of the country’s part in the Square Kilometre Array project, and the increased interest in the field.
For information on the Spider experiment, visit http://spider.princeton.edu
Daily News