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Post by moabiter on Jul 27, 2010 22:59:33 GMT -8
Sharper than Hubble Large Binocular Telescope achieves major breakthrough June 15th, 2010 Until relatively recently, ground-based telescopes had to live with wavefront distortion caused by the Earth’s atmosphere which significantly blurred images of distant objects (this is why stars appear to twinkle to the human eye). While there have been advancements in adaptive optics technology to correct atmospheric blurring, the LBT’s innovative system truly takes this concept to a whole new level. In closed-dome tests beginning May 12 and sky tests every night since May 25, astronomer Simone Esposito and his INAF team tested the new device, achieving exceptional results. The LBT’s adaptive optics system, called the First Light Adaptive Optics system (FLAO), immediately outperformed all other comparable systems, delivering an image quality greater than three times sharper than the Hubble Space Telescope using just one of the LBT’s two 8.4 metre mirrors. As soon as the adaptive optics are in place for both mirrors and their light is combined appropriately, it is expected that the LBT will achieve image sharpness ten times that of the Hubble. www.mpg.de/english/illustrationsDocumentation/documentation/pressReleases/2010/pressRelease20100615/index.html
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Post by moabiter on Oct 17, 2010 22:40:11 GMT -8
Planet hunters no longer blinded by the light October 14, 2010 The planet Beta Pictoris b imaged using the Apodizing Phase Plate coronagraph. The “bad” (bright) side of the image is visible to the right while the central bright regions of the central star (Beta Pictoris) have been masked out to enable the viewer to clearly see the planet to the left of the star. (Image: ESO) www.physorg.com/news/2010-10-planet-hunters-longer.html
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