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Future Telescopes

Future Telescopes. Gather more light Larger mirrors (or many smaller ones) Sharper images Larger mirrors or arrays of mirrors Correct for blurring of atmosphere (adaptive optics) Space satellites (e.g., Hubble) Images of larger areas Specially-designed telescope optics

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Future Telescopes

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  1. Future Telescopes

  2. Gather more light Larger mirrors (or many smaller ones) Sharper images Larger mirrors or arrays of mirrors Correct for blurring of atmosphere (adaptive optics) Space satellites (e.g., Hubble) Images of larger areas Specially-designed telescope optics Cameras with large detector arrays More sophisticated instruments High spectral resolution Multi-object spectroscopy Adaptive optics Areas of Telescope Advancement

  3. Day Night

  4. The largest single mirrors are currently 8 m in diameter. Rather than use larger mirrors, future telescopes will contain arrays of mirrors.

  5. Smaller mirrors are easier and cheaper to build, so larger telescopes often use segmented mirrors

  6. The largest optical/IR telescopes currently have mirror diameters of 10 m. The next generation of telescopes should reach 30-100 m

  7. Improvement in resolution from 1 to 100 m

  8. Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) LSST is a 8.4 telescope that will use a wide-field camera to image 2/3 of the sky 1000 times at optical wavelengths from 2016-2026. The primary goals are the discovery of all large near-Earth asteroids (>100 m) and measurements of dark energy.

  9. LSST camera

  10. Searching for Asteroids with LSST

  11. Imaging through a perfect telescope With no turbulence, FWHM is diffraction limit of telescope,  ~l / D Example: l / D = 0.02” for l = 1 mm, D = 10 m With turbulence, image size gets much larger (typically 0.5 - 2”) FWHM ~l/D in units of l/D Point Spread Function (PSF): intensity profile from point source

  12. How does adaptive optics work? Measure details of blurring from “guide star” near the object you want to observe Calculate (on a computer) the shape to apply to deformable mirror to correct blurring Light from both guide star and astronomical object is reflected from deformable mirror; distortions are removed

  13. Comparison of normal seeing and AO

  14. Neptune with AO on Keck (10 m) normal seeing Keck AO 2.3 arc sec

  15. Neptune with Hubble and Keck AO HST Keck AO

  16. Limitations of AO • most AO systems are restricted to IR; very difficult in optical • AO correction applies to only a very small patch of sky • need bright star near target for wavefront correction, although lasers can be used to create artificial stars

  17. Stratospheric Observatory for IR Astronomy (SOFIA) SOFIA is a 2.5 m IR telescope that will soon be deployed on a modified 747.

  18. SOFIA will observe at wavelengths that are blocked by the atmosphere for telescopes on the ground

  19. Example of a SOFIA flight path

  20. Example of a SOFIA flight path

  21. James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) JWST is a 6.5 m IR telescope that will be launched in 2014. Because of its large mirror, it will over much better sensitivity and spatial resolution than any previous IR telescope. It will focus on the first stars and galaxies, as well as planets around other stars. Spitzer JWST

  22. Orbit of JWST

  23. Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) ALMA will be an array of 54m and 12m millimeter-wave dishes on a high plain (5000 m) in Chile. It will provide 0.02” resolution at 1mm, which is comparable to JWST. Like JWST, ALMA will focus on the first galaxies and the formation of planets.

  24. The ALMA site

  25. ALMA science disk gap created by 5 AU gas giant at 100 pc

  26. ALMA science Hubble Nearby galaxies Distant galaxies

  27. ALMA science ALMA Nearby galaxies Distant galaxies

  28. Square Kilometer Array (SKA) SKA will be an array of thousands of radio dishes with a total collecting area of 1 km2 and a baseline of 3000 km. It will be built in either Australia or Africa and should begin operations in 2020. SKA will offer both sharp images (<0.1”) and a huge field of view (1 deg), as well as 100x the sensitivity of VLA. SKA will study interstellar gas from soon after the Big Bang and the formation of planets.

  29. SKA design

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