04/10/2026
Major new telescope on Chilean summit opens window on universe 🔭 🌌
Thirty-four years after Cornell scientists first conceived it, the Fred Young Submillimeter Telescope (FYST) now rises above the Atacama Desert, near the summit of Cerro Chajnantor in Chile’s Parque Astronómico Atacama, helping to answer some of the most important questions in astronomy.
FYST is a project of the Cornell University-led CCAT Observatory, Inc., a collaboration that includes Germany’s University of Cologne, University of Bonn and Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics in Garching, and a Canadian consortium of universities led by the University of Waterloo, in conjunction with Chilean astronomers through the University of Chile.
And at a height of 18,400 feet above sea level – higher than the Mount Everest base camp at 17,598 feet – FYST lies above most of the atmospheric layers that block submillimeter waves from reaching the ground. The Atacama Desert’s extremely dry air will provide exceptional views, without water v***r to obscure the signal.
FYST is named after Cornell alum Fred Young ’64, M.Eng ’66, MBA ’66, who has supported FYST since the project’s early days. In addition to his financial support, Young actively participated in the planning process, offering business and engineering expertise.
“As the time for celebration of ‘first light’ for the Fred Young Submillimeter Telescope nears, it is appropriate to recognize the inspiration for this world-class project,” said Young, referring to the first time a telescope is used to observe the sky. “Central to that is the vision developed in the last century by the late Riccardo Giovanelli and by Martha Haynes to exploit the unique potential for far infrared astronomy at what is, arguably, its best site on Earth.”
The telescope features an innovative optical design that allows astronomers to observe over a wide field-of-view in each exposure, enabling them to rapidly and efficiently map wide areas of the sky. Operating in the submillimeter wavelength range of light, FYST will create movies of the sky – “celestial cinematography” – in a part of the electromagnetic spectrum where this has never before been done.
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