Taiwan Quick Take: AMiBA telescope ready

An array for microwave background anisotropy (AMiBA) radio telescope array on Mauna Loa, Hawaii, is ready for operation, the Academia Sinica said yesterday. The research institution's Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics plans to establish seven interferometers by the end of this year and add another six units next year. The full capacity will be 19 units, which will be fulfilled after an evaluation of the post-second-stage performance. AMiBA is designed to measure the distribution of high red-shift clusters of galaxies via the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Effect. The results could help to better understand the primordial and early structure of the universe. AMiBA is also able to observe the polarization properties of the cosmic microwave background, which may be vital to revealing the universe's ionization history, as well as the detection of gravity waves. Hawaii was chosen as the site of the telescope because there was no suitable place in Taiwan -- the project requires a higher atmospheric transparency and minimum radio frequency interference.