History

Building SOAR

August 1997: Project Initiated

The four SOAR partners (MSU, UNC, NOAO, and Brazil) met in East Lansing and committed to build and operate SOAR, at a total project cost (construction and operation) of $43M. MSU became a 14% partner.

March 1999: Major Contracts Let

Following hiring of a project team, development of a conceptual design, and a competitive bidding procedure, contractors were selected to provide the major subsystems (the mirror blanks, the active optical system, the mount including drives, the building, and the dome).

1997–1998: Site Prepared

SOAR's superb dark-sky site on Cerro Pachón, Chile was selected and leveled.

2000–2002: Enclosure Constructed

October 2002: Mount Completed and Installed

All specifications for pointing and tracking had been met or exceeded.

November 2003: Optics System Completed

The optics system, consisting of the primary, secondary, and tertiary mirrors and their active and tip-tilt control systems, were thoroughly tested at the fabrication facility in Danbury, CT and sent to Cerro Pachón.

April 17, 2004: SOAR Dedication and First Light

2004–2005: Instruments

A full set of state-of-the-art optical and near-IR imagers and spectrographs were installed, with planning begun for second generation instruments.

Research with SOAR

MSU astronomers use SOAR to study a variety of astronomical sources, from relatively nearby sources like the Crab nebula to distant clusters of galaxies. Below are some highlights.

NGC 2440

This spectacular image of NGC 2440 was taken by SOAR in late December 2004. The planetary nebula NGC 2440 is the result of a dying star (the blue dot at the center of the enlarged box) blowing off its outer layers to form an ionized gas cloud nearly a light year across. The object lies 6500 light years away from Earth, still well inside our Galaxy. The figure shows the images that were taken in three separate colors (u', g', r'), and then the combined "composite" image.

Crab Nebula

Image of the Crab Nebula taken with SOAR/Spartan showing molecular hydrogen (red), ionized filaments (Br γ, green), and synchrotron radiation (white). Loh, Baldwin, Curtis, Ferland, O'Dell, Fabian, Salomé (2011, ApJS, 194, 30) discovered 55 arcsec-sized knots of molecular hydrogen.