Interferometry Archives

November 14, 2024November 14, 2024 by Mark Thompson

Interferometry Will Be the Key to Resolving Exoplanets

The setting Sun dips below the horizon of the Pacific Ocean, bathing the Paranal platform in light in this amazing aerial image from the Atacama Desert in northern Chile. The Cerro Paranal mountain top is home to the world’s most advanced ground-based facility for astronomy, hosting the four 8.2-metre Unit Telescopes of the Very Large Telescope, four 1.8-metre Auxiliary Telescopes and the VLT Survey Telescope (VST) — all of which are visible in this image. The 4.1-metre Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA), also housed at Cerro Paranal, is hidden out of frame.

When it comes to telescopes, bigger really is better. A larger telescope brings with it the ability to see fainter objects and also to be able to see more detail. Typically we have relied upon larger and larger single aperture telescopes in our attempts to distinguish exoplanets around other stars. Space telescopes have also been employed but all that may be about to change. A new paper suggests that multiple telescopes working together as interferometers are what’s needed.

September 15, 2024September 15, 2024 by Laurence Tognetti

Studying Stars from the Lunar Surface with MoonLITE, Courtesy of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services

Diagram conveying the setup for MoonLITE on the lunar surface, beginning with a lander being delivered by NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (1), which unrolls a fiber umbilical over 100 meters (328 feet) (2), concluding with deploying the siderostat station (3). Science operations begin once instrument calibration is performed. (Credit: van Belle et al. (2024))

Optical interferometry has been a long-proven science method that involves using several separate telescopes to act as one big telescope, thus achieving more accurate data as opposed to each telescope working individually. However, the Earth’s chaotic atmosphere often makes achieving ground-based science difficult, but what if we could do it on the Moon? This is what a recent study presented at the SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation 2024 hopes to address as a team of researchers propose MoonLITE (Lunar InTerferometry Explorer) as part of the NASA Astrophysics Pioneers program. This also comes after this same team of researchers recently proposed the Big Fringe Telescope (BFT), which is a 2.2-kilometer interferometer telescope to be built on the Earth with the goal of observing bright stars.

September 12, 2024September 12, 2024 by Laurence Tognetti

Artemis Missions Could Put the most Powerful imaging Telescope on the Moon

Simulations depicting the potential solar physics science that the Artemis-enabled Stellar Imager (AeSI) on the Moon could accomplish. (Credit: Figure 2/Rau et al. (2024))

Ground-based interferometry on Earth has proven to be a successful method for conducting science by combining light from several telescopes into acting like a single large telescope. But how can a ultraviolet (UV)/optical interferometer telescope on the Moon deliver enhanced science, and can the Artemis missions help make this a reality? This is what a recently submitted study to the SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation 2024 conference hopes to address as a team of researchers propose the Artemis-enabled Stellar Imager (AeSI) that, as its name implies, could potentially be delivered to the lunar surface via NASA’s upcoming Artemis missions. This proposal was recently accepted as a Phase 1 study through NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program and holds the potential to develop revolutionary extremely high-angular resolution way of conducting science on other planetary bodies while contributing to other missions, as well.

June 28, 2024June 28, 2024 by Evan Gough

Could We Detect an Alien Civilization Trying to Warm Their Planet?

This artist's illustration shows a hypothetical Earth-like inhabited planet being terraformed with artificial greenhouse gases. We could detect these chemicals with infrared spectroscopy. Image Credit: Sohail Wasif, UC Riverside/Schwieterman et al. 2024

Humanity is facing an atmospheric threat of our own device, and our internecine squabbles are hampering our ability to neutralize that threat. But if we last long enough, the reverse situation will arise. Our climate will cool, and we’ll need to figure out how to warm it up. If that day ever arises, we should be organized enough to meet the challenge.

If there are other civilizations out there in the galaxy, one may already be facing a cooling climate or an ice age. Could we detect the greenhouse chemicals they would be purposefully emitting into their atmosphere in an attempt to warm their planet?

April 29, 2024April 29, 2024 by Evan Gough

JWST Uses “Interferometry Mode” to Reveal Two Protoplanets Around a Young Star

Astronomers used the JWST's interferometry mode to study the PDS 70 extrasolar system. Image Credit: Blakely et al. 2024.

The JWST is flexing its muscles with its interferometry mode. Researchers used it to study a well-known extrasolar system called PDS 70. The goal? To test the interferometry mode and see how it performs when observing a complex target.

January 8, 2024January 8, 2024 by Evan Gough

Can Alien Civilizations Detect Humanity?

Is anyone out there? A new study examines how likely it is that an advanced ETI can "see" us. Image Credit: Jon Hrubesch

One of the fascinating things about being a human in this age is that we can do more than wonder about other life and other civilizations. We can actually look for them, although there are obvious limitations to our search. But what’s equally fascinating is that we can wonder if others can see us.

April 14, 2023April 14, 2023 by Alan Boyle

Artificial Intelligence Produces a Sharper Image of M87’s Big Black Hole

The new PRIMO reconstruction of the black hole in M87. This is based on a newly "cleaned-up" image from the Event Horizon Telescope. (Credit: Lia Medeiros et al. / ApJL, 2023)

Astronomers have used machine learning to sharpen up the Event Horizon Telescope’s first picture of a black hole — an exercise that demonstrates the value of artificial intelligence for fine-tuning cosmic observations.

The image should guide scientists as they test their hypotheses about the behavior of black holes, and about the gravitational rules of the road under extreme conditions.

February 13, 2023February 16, 2023 by Matt Williams

Are We Entering the Era of Quantum Telescopes?

Beyond James Webb and LUVOIR, the future of astronomy could come down to telescopes that rely on quantum mechanics. Credit: Anton Pozdnyakov

For astronomers, one of the greatest challenges is capturing images of objects and phenomena that are difficult to see using optical (or visible light) telescopes. This problem has been largely addressed by interferometry, a technique where multiple telescopes gather signals, which is then combined to create a more complete picture. Examples include the Event Horizon Telescope, which relies on observatories from around the world to capture the first images of the supermassive black hole (SMBH) at the center of the M87 galaxy, and of Sagittarius A* at the center of the Milky Way.

That being said, classic interferometry requires that optical links be maintained between observatories, which imposes limitations and can lead to drastically increased costs. In a recent study, a team of astrophysicists and theoretical physicists proposed how these limitations could be overcome by relying on quantum mechanics. Rather than relying on optical links, they propose how the principle of quantum entanglements could be used to share photons between observatories. This technique is part of a growing field of research that could lead to “quantum telescopes” someday.

December 7, 2021December 7, 2021 by Evan Gough

Giant Stars and the Ultimate Fate of the Sun

Sizes of giant stars relative to our Sun. Going from the G-type to K-type to M-types, giant stars get progressively redder (cooler) and larger. Late M-type giants are more than 100 times the size of our Sun. Image Credit: Lowell Observatory.

Astronomers have a new tool to help them understand giant stars. It’s a detailed study of the precise temperatures and sizes of 191 giant stars. The authors of the work say that it’ll serve as a standard reference on giant stars for years to come.

It’ll also shed some light on what the Sun will go through late in its life.

November 30, 2020November 30, 2020 by Brian Koberlein

A new measurement puts the Sun 2,000 light-years closer to the center of the Milky Way

Standing beside the Milky Way. Drowming out the night sky blocks us off from nature, and that's not good for humans. Credit: P. Horálek/ESO

Where are we? Cosmically, we’re in our home galaxy, typically known as the Milky Way. The center of our galaxy is marked by a supermassive black hole, which the Sun orbits at a distance of about 30,000 light-years. The official distance, set by the International Astronomical Union in 1985, is 27,700 light-years. But a new study as confirmed we are actually a bit closer to the black hole.