July 16, 2025
A two metric ton gapless aluminum mirror was mounted on a custom designed test stand to enable its final verification and characterization tests at the University of Chicago. The mirror was designed as part of a unique Three Mirror Anastigmatic (TMA) telescope funded by an NSF Mid-Scale Innovations Program in Astronomical Sciences (MSIP) award. Note: the video of the mounting is 2x speed.
Watch the CBS News video of the delivery of the mirror to UChicago.
CMB-S4 is the next-generation ground-based cosmic microwave background experiment. With arrays of large- and small-aperture telescopes surveying the sky with hundreds of thousands of cryogenically-cooled superconducting detectors, CMB-S4 will deliver transformative discoveries in fundamental physics, cosmology, astrophysics, and astronomy. CMB-S4 is supported by the Department of Energy Office of Science and the National Science Foundation, and is a collaboration that spans 19 countries and 26 US states.