Continuing Exploitation of the UK Investment in the JCMT
Lead Research Organisation:
CARDIFF UNIVERSITY
Department Name: School of Physics and Astronomy
Abstract
We propose that the UK continue to take a significant role in the operation and scientific exploitation of the James Clerk Maxwell telescope (JCMT). We request £200K per annum funding from STFC for a further 3 years from 1st April 2021 to 1st April 2024, which combined with the contributions from the universities will allow us to continue as roughly 20% partners with the East Asian Observatory (EAO), the lead operator, and Canada. The JCMT is the world's largest submm telescope and is likely to remain so until at least 2030. The period for which we now request funding will include the commissioning of new instrumentation, in particular a new camera which will increase the mapping speed of the telescope by at least a factor of 10.
The STFC contribution will allow the UK to continue to play a major role in the Large Programmes currently underway, many of which we are leading, as well as allowing us to initiate new programmes, all at a remarkably low cost. The EAO see the operation of the JCMT as the route to developing the skill base of their own communities via collaboration with the enormous expertise of the UK submm community. It has therefore set aside 50% of the total observing time on the JCMT for large-scale collaborative programmes defined and exploited by joint science teams drawn from all six partner countries. The UK community therefore will gain access to effectively 60% of the total science output of the JCMT at a total cost of £600K over 3 years. As well as producing excellent science, access to the JCMT gives the only direct UK access to the Event Horizon Telescope, with its ability to image the regions immediately around black holes, and the wide-field imaging capability of the JCMT puts UK astronomers in a strong position to leverage time on the Atacama Large Millimetre Array and the James Webb Space Telescope.
The STFC contribution will allow the UK to continue to play a major role in the Large Programmes currently underway, many of which we are leading, as well as allowing us to initiate new programmes, all at a remarkably low cost. The EAO see the operation of the JCMT as the route to developing the skill base of their own communities via collaboration with the enormous expertise of the UK submm community. It has therefore set aside 50% of the total observing time on the JCMT for large-scale collaborative programmes defined and exploited by joint science teams drawn from all six partner countries. The UK community therefore will gain access to effectively 60% of the total science output of the JCMT at a total cost of £600K over 3 years. As well as producing excellent science, access to the JCMT gives the only direct UK access to the Event Horizon Telescope, with its ability to image the regions immediately around black holes, and the wide-field imaging capability of the JCMT puts UK astronomers in a strong position to leverage time on the Atacama Large Millimetre Array and the James Webb Space Telescope.
Planned Impact
The JCMT has a strong history of public outreach, which will continue. The public has a very positive view of astronomy research, and astronomy outreach attracts young people to study STEM subjects at school and university.
Because this is a collaboration with four East Asian countries - China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan - it will enable UK universities and scientists to develop closer ties with scientists and research institutions in these four very strong economies. There are strong opportunities for student exchange, both outward for UK students and inwards for Asian students coming to the UK.
UK PhD students and early-career researchers will have the opportunity of working with cutting-edge technology, both with the hardware at the telescope and with the software used to analyse the data. There is significant opportunity for this training to result in spinout activity in other areas, for example the UK creative industries in the case of software and imaging technology in the case of hardware.
Because this is a collaboration with four East Asian countries - China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan - it will enable UK universities and scientists to develop closer ties with scientists and research institutions in these four very strong economies. There are strong opportunities for student exchange, both outward for UK students and inwards for Asian students coming to the UK.
UK PhD students and early-career researchers will have the opportunity of working with cutting-edge technology, both with the hardware at the telescope and with the software used to analyse the data. There is significant opportunity for this training to result in spinout activity in other areas, for example the UK creative industries in the case of software and imaging technology in the case of hardware.
Organisations
People |
ORCID iD |
| Stephen Eales (Principal Investigator) |
Publications
Greaves J
(2022)
Recovering Phosphine in Venus' Atmosphere from SOFIA Observations
Dye S
(2022)
A high-resolution investigation of the multiphase ISM in a galaxy during the first two billion years
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Smith M. W. L.
(2022)
VizieR Online Data Catalog: SCUBA-2 850µm component of JINGLE (Smith+, 2019)
in VizieR Online Data Catalog
Issaoun S
(2022)
Resolving the Inner Parsec of the Blazar J1924-2914 with the Event Horizon Telescope
in The Astrophysical Journal
Greaves Jane
(2022)
Venus mysterious clouds: phosphine and other gases
in American Astronomical Society Meeting #240
Athikkat-Eknath G
(2022)
Investigating variations in the dust emissivity index in the Andromeda Galaxy
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Ching T
(2022)
The JCMT BISTRO-2 Survey: Magnetic Fields of the Massive DR21 Filament
in The Astrophysical Journal
Greaves J
(2023)
Comment on "Phosphine in the Venusian Atmosphere: A Strict Upper Limit From SOFIA GREAT Observations" by Cordiner et al.
in Geophysical Research Letters
Ward-Thompson D
(2023)
First BISTRO Observations of the Dark Cloud Taurus L1495A-B10: The Role of the Magnetic Field in the Earliest Stages of Low-mass Star Formation
in The Astrophysical Journal
De Looze I.
(2023)
VizieR Online Data Catalog: JINGLE IV Dust in the local Universe (De Looze, 2020)
in VizieR Online Data Catalog
Jorstad S
(2023)
The Event Horizon Telescope Image of the Quasar NRAO 530
in The Astrophysical Journal
Scholte D
(2023)
Cold gas mass measurements for the era of large optical spectroscopic surveys
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Könyves V
(2023)
A low-mass hub-filament with double centre revealed in NGC 2071-North
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Fleming G
(2023)
Stellar clustering and the kinematics of stars around Collinder 121 using Gaia DR3
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Karoly J
(2023)
The JCMT BISTRO Survey: Studying the Complex Magnetic Field of L43
in The Astrophysical Journal
Fiorellino E.
(2023)
VizieR Online Data Catalog: Dense cores in the Serpens region from HGBS (Fiorellino+, 2021)
in VizieR Online Data Catalog
Dudzeviciute U.
(2023)
VizieR Online Data Catalog: ALMA survey of the SCUBA-2 CLS UDS field (Dudzeviciute+, 2020)
in VizieR Online Data Catalog
Roelofs F
(2023)
Polarimetric Geometric Modeling for mm-VLBI Observations of Black Holes
in The Astrophysical Journal Letters
Tahani M
(2023)
JCMT BISTRO Observations: Magnetic Field Morphology of Bubbles Associated with NGC 6334
in The Astrophysical Journal
Prather B
(2023)
Comparison of Polarized Radiative Transfer Codes Used by the EHT Collaboration
in The Astrophysical Journal
Garratt T
(2023)
The SCUBA-2 Large eXtragalactic Survey: 850µm map, catalogue and the bright-end number counts of the XMM- LSS field
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Pattle K
(2023)
The JCMT nearby galaxies legacy survey: SCUBA-2 observations of nearby galaxies
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Torne P
(2023)
A Search for Pulsars around Sgr A* in the First Event Horizon Telescope Data Set
in The Astrophysical Journal
Cheng T.
(2023)
VizieR Online Data Catalog: SCUBA-2 overdensities in candidate protoclusters (Cheng+, 2020)
in VizieR Online Data Catalog
Hwang J
(2023)
Magnetic Fields in the Horsehead Nebula
in The Astronomical Journal
Cornish T
(2024)
The Radio Galaxy Environment Reference Survey (RAGERS): a submillimetre study of the environments of massive radio-quiet galaxies at z = 1-3
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Pattle K
(2024)
Star Formation in the Milky Way and Beyond in the Era of JWST and ALMA
in Astronomy & Geophysics
Eden D
(2024)
A study of Galactic Plane Planck Galactic cold clumps observed by SCOPE and the JCMT Plane Survey
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Clements D
(2024)
Venus Phosphine: Updates and lessons learned
Gu ? Q
(2024)
The Magnetic Field in Quiescent Star-forming Filament G16.96+0.27
in The Astrophysical Journal
Saha P
(2024)
Magnetic Fields in Massive Star-forming Regions (MagMaR): Unveiling an Hourglass Magnetic Field in G333.46-0.16 Using ALMA
in The Astrophysical Journal Letters
Algaba J
(2024)
Broadband multi-wavelength properties of M87 during the 2018 EHT campaign including a very high energy flaring episode
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Zabel N
(2024)
A resolved, multiwavelength study of gas-rich dwarf galaxies in the Fornax cluster using MUSE, MeerKAT, and ALMA
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Pattle Kate
(2024)
Interstellar Magnetic Fields and Our Dynamical ISM: The Future of Dust Polarimetry with AtLAST
in EAS2024, European Astronomical Society Annual Meeting
Collaboration E
(2024)
VizieR Online Data Catalog: M87* EHT image (Event Horizon Tel. Coll.+, 2024)
in VizieR Online Data Catalog
Bains W
(2024)
Source of phosphine on Venus-An unsolved problem
in Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences
The Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration
(2024)
First Sagittarius A* Event Horizon Telescope Results. VII. Polarization of the Ring
in The Astrophysical Journal Letters
Raymond A
(2024)
First Very Long Baseline Interferometry Detections at 870 µm
in The Astronomical Journal
Shen X
(2024)
JCMT 850 µm Continuum Observations of Density Structures in the G35 Molecular Complex
in The Astrophysical Journal
Paraschos G
(2024)
Ordered magnetic fields around the 3C 84 central black hole
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Wu J
(2024)
A Tale of Three: Magnetic Fields along the Orion Integral-shaped Filament as Revealed by the JCMT BISTRO Survey
in The Astrophysical Journal Letters
Graves S
(2024)
The JCMT Legacy Release: SCUBA-2 850 µm Coadds and Catalogs
in The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series