Joint Astrophysics Colloquium

CCAT: submm Astronomy from as High as you can Drive a Truck

Riccardo Giovanelli

Cornell University

CCAT is a partnership of US, Canadian and European academic/research institutions to build and operate a large submm telescope at a high elevation (5617m above sea level) site in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile. The science goals - ranging from early Universe Cosmology to Solar System structure, will be summarized, together with the technical requirements deriving from those goals and the technical solutions developed so far. The project is currently running through a 2-year Engineering Design phase, following which construction will start. First light is projected to take place in 2017. The status of the project, its partnership and synergy with other facilities, especially ALMA, will be discussed.