Chara can be money at a distance of 16.000 kilometers still perceive
Already in November 1999, Chara (Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy) celebrated its premiere on Mount Wilson at Los Angeles as one of six planned telescopes on test purposes in the truest sense of the word for the first time saw the light of the world. If everything goes according to plan, all telescopes are connected in the spring forest year for the first time. Then astronomers can take a look at surfaces for the first time for the first time.
Prof. McAlister
If astronomers target distant stars with their telescopes, know a time travel of the optical nature. With every look through the eyepiece, they immerse deeply into the past of the cosmos and meet stars, galaxies and quasars such as they once looked a long time than the light that revealed us now, the foreign worlds had just left at that time at that time.
Your preservation sample as a time machine should exist the interferometry system Chara soon. Although the 13.8 million dollar expensive project approached at Mount Wilson at Los Angeles, the 13.8 million dollar project has already started its regular operation in December last year; But the previous observations had only test character. "At present, six of our telescopes are placed on Mount Wilson, of which only three are fully functional", Thoudold Chara Director Harold A. McAlister.
But this week our next Telescope couple occurs in action. It will then be the longest baseline at 330 meters in diameter, which has ever been used for optical interferometry.
If the system works wishful, the resolution power of the new Observatory 200 times will be gross than those who "Hubble"-Space telescope has been awarded so far. After completing his completion, Chara is to be able to even the smallest details such as a money back at a distance of 16.000 kilometers still perceive.
With the entire tool that operates in the infrared and the visible area of the light, astronomers can make detailed surface recordings from other stars in our galaxy for the first time and their properties speak mass, diameter and temperature to examine. The observatory of Georgia developed and built by the University of Georgia in about 14 years the light of several telescopes. Each of the six chara telescopes, which are arranged on the summit of the approximately 1737-meter Mount Wilson Y-form and of which three have already been successfully tested, has a meter diameter. When the system preserves, the number of observation devices should be increased to eight.
Connected are the individual telescopes according to the principle of optical interferometry. Thereafter, the captured light waves of the respective telescopes are coupled and excavated together. In this way, the power increases by a factor of 100 compared to a single telescope. This corresponds to a mirror of 400 meters diameter.
Of this extremely high resolution, the astronomers promise a lot of planetary research, not least because Chara like no other observatory on highly sensitive way can discover and photographing and photographing protoplanetaric slices around stars. "For the first time we will watch the surfaces of foreign stars and probably also directly discover new planets outside of our solar system", Mother McAlister.
Chara, which was successfully tested successfully for the first time in November 1999, should be available at the beginning of the early year for research.
As soon as all six telescopes are used for interferometry, the observations are fully started. But this will not be the case before springing the next year