China is set to establish a new telescope array in the vicinity of the South Pole, with its prototype recently completing a trial operation on the frigid continent.

The upcoming project, named the Antarctic TianMu Time-domain Astronomical Observation Array, is anticipated to comprise 100 small-diameter, large-field telescopes in the Antarctic region. Each telescope will cover a sky area of 10,000 square degrees, conducting continuous observations during the polar night each year, as outlined by its designers from the Shanghai Astronomical Observatory (SHAO) under the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Transported during China's 39th Antarctic scientific expedition to Zhongshan Station, the array's prototype underwent trouble-free observations for 248 consecutive days starting from February 20, 2023. It gathered a substantial amount of data during the Antarctic polar night.

Preliminary analysis indicated that the prototype achieved photometric accuracy, with stars brighter than the 9th magnitude in images exposed for 30 seconds reaching one-thousandth of a stellar magnitude. This success validates the feasibility of the prototype design, as noted by Zhou Dan, the chief engineer of the prototype from SHAO. This prototype represents China's inaugural astronomical observation equipment in Antarctica utilizing drift scanning charge-coupled device (CCD) technology, allowing the telescope to track celestial objects without a driving mechanism.