Scientific Goals of the Kunlun Infrared Sky Survey (KISS)

Abstract

The high Antarctic plateau provides exceptional conditions for conducting infrared observations of the cosmos on account of the cold, dry and stable atmosphere above the ice surface. This paper describes the scientific goals behind the first program to examine the time-varying universe in the infrared from Antarctica -the Kunlun Infrared Sky Survey (KISS). This will employ a small (50 cm aperture) telescope to monitor the southern skies in the 2.4µm K dark window from China's Kunlun station at Dome A, on the summit of the Antarctic plateau, through the uninterrupted 4-month period of winter darkness. An earlier paper discussed optimisation of the K dark filter for the best sensitivity (Li et al. 2016). This paper examines the scientific program for KISS. We calculate the sensitivity of the camera for the extrema of observing conditions that will be encountered. We present the parameters for sample surveys that could then be carried out for a range of cadences and sensitivities. We then discuss several science programs that could be conducted with these capabilities, involving star formation, brown dwarfs and hot Jupiters, exoplanets around M dwarfs, the terminal phases of stellar evolution, discovering fast transients as part of multi-wavelength campaigns, embedded supernova searches, reverberation mapping of active galactic nuclei, gamma ray bursts and the detection of the cosmic infrared background.

Observation scheduling and automatic data reduction for the Antarctic telescope, ASTEP+

“…As for the high plateaus of Antarctica in general, Concordia is characterized by a high sky transparency, low water content and low thermal background that makes it one of the best sites on Earth for infrared Astronomy. 46 Combining observations in the visible with ASTEP+ to observations in the infrared with a new telescope of a similar aperture could provide a real breakthrough for the monitoring of exoplanetary atmospheres and exoplanets around low-mass stars and for the study of counterparts of gravitational wave events.…”

Automation of the AST3 optical sky survey from Dome~A, Antarctica

“…Each telescope was originally designed to have only one filter, however the second telescope, AST3-2, was made with two-filters (i and R-band), while the first telescope, AST3-1, was equipped with a single i-band filter. The third telescope, AST3-3, is being fitted with a K-dark infrared filter and camera, and has yet to be sent to Dome A (Li et al 2016;Burton et al 2016).…”

Antarctic Survey Telescope 3-3: Overview, System Performance and Preliminary Observations at Yaoan, Yunnan

“…AST3-3 has an FoV of 1.65 • × 1.23 • , and is currently using the g-band filter. In future, AST3-3 will be equipped with a mid-infrared camera, using the unique 2.4 µm K-dark infrared window of Dome A to carry out the first Antarctic Infrared Time Domain Astronomy Research Program -Kunlun Infrared Sky Survey (KISS) [33][34][35][36].…”