- Joined
- Dec 3, 2017
- Messages
- 26,290
- Reaction score
- 16,771
- Gender
- Male
- Political Leaning
- Progressive
https://www.apnews.com/3e79b2fb6e20...scope-array-gets-upgrade-to-see-fainter-stars
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — A telescope array atop Anderson Mesa in northern Arizona is getting a major upgrade more than 20 years after it was built.
The massive “Y″ shape of the Navy Optical Precision Interferometer stretches across the equivalent of four football fields southeast of Flagstaff, the Arizona Daily Sun reported.
The telescopes that make up the arms of the “Y″ collect light from distant stars, and then bounce it around on mirrors before sending it through vacuum-sealed tubes to a central laboratory.
Three more large mirrors, measuring about a meter in diameter each, will be installed along the arms of the telescope array over the next several months. The first new mirror with its accompanying hardware was delivered to the site Tuesday.
The mirrors will allow the telescope to see fainter stars and to see deeper into the sky, said Gerard van Belle, an astronomer at Lowell Observatory, a partner on the project. The mirrors will increase the amount of light the system can capture by about by 50 times.
=============================================
Neat stuff. The Hubble Space Telescope can detect stars that were formed shortly after the Big Bang.
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — A telescope array atop Anderson Mesa in northern Arizona is getting a major upgrade more than 20 years after it was built.
The massive “Y″ shape of the Navy Optical Precision Interferometer stretches across the equivalent of four football fields southeast of Flagstaff, the Arizona Daily Sun reported.
The telescopes that make up the arms of the “Y″ collect light from distant stars, and then bounce it around on mirrors before sending it through vacuum-sealed tubes to a central laboratory.
Three more large mirrors, measuring about a meter in diameter each, will be installed along the arms of the telescope array over the next several months. The first new mirror with its accompanying hardware was delivered to the site Tuesday.
The mirrors will allow the telescope to see fainter stars and to see deeper into the sky, said Gerard van Belle, an astronomer at Lowell Observatory, a partner on the project. The mirrors will increase the amount of light the system can capture by about by 50 times.
=============================================
Neat stuff. The Hubble Space Telescope can detect stars that were formed shortly after the Big Bang.