Abstract:
Dome A, the highest spot on Antarctic plateau is likely the best site for ground-based astronomy. I present in this talk an update on the recent progresses in building an astronomical observatory at Dome A. In the near term, the 68cm wide field Antarctic Survey Telescopes (AST3) will be collecting data that are continuous for more than 3 months during the Antarctic winter. A time-domain study in the NIR of supernovae and other transients will be enabled by an infrared version of AST3. We expect the AST3 data to be unique in terms of their time coverage. In the longer term, we expect to build one 2.5 meter optical/NIR telescope and one 5 meter THz telescope, and use these telescopes to discover supernova explosions at redshift far beyond what is possible with a conventional temperate telescope.