Detection of Galactic and Extragalactic Millimeter-Wavelength Transient Sources with SPT-3G

Understand

High-angular-resolution cosmic microwave background experiments provide a unique opportunity to conduct a survey of time-variable sources at millimeter wavelengths, a population which has primarily been understood through follow-up measurements of detections in other bands.

• Here we report the first results of an astronomical transient survey with the South Pole Telescope (SPT) using the SPT-3G camera to observe 1500 square degrees of the southern sky.
• The observations took place from March to November 2020 in three bands centered at 95, 150, and 220 GHz.
• This survey yielded the detection of fifteen transient events from sources not previously detected by the SPT.