The Keck Interferometer

NASANews@hq.nasa.gov
Extract from RELEASE: 01-42

AN ASTRONOMY FIRST: TELESCOPES DOUBLE-TEAM HAWAIIAN NIGHT SKY

Proving that two telescopes are better than one, NASA astronomers have gathered the first starlight obtained by linking two Hawaiian 10-meter telescopes.

This successful test at the W.M. Keck Observatory on Mauna Kea makes the linked telescopes, which together are called the Keck Interferometer, the world's most powerful optical telescope system. The project will eventually search for planets around nearby stars and help NASA design future space-based missions that can search for habitable, Earthlike planets.

Monday night, March 12, starlight from HD61294, a faint star in the constellation Lynx, was captured by both Keck telescopes and transported across a sophisticated optical system across the 275 feet separating the two telescopes. In an underground tunnel that links the telescopes, the collected light waves were combined and processed with a beam combiner and camera. In order to properly phase the two telescopes, adaptive optics on both telescopes removed the distortion caused by the Earth's atmosphere. In addition, the optical system in the tunnel adjusted the light path to within a millionth of an inch.

Testing of the Keck Interferometer will continue for the next several months. Limited science operations, including the search for planets, are expected to begin this Fall. Scientists around the world will soon be invited to propose studies they'd like to conduct using the Keck Interferometer. Their proposals will undergo a formal review and selection process.

The development of the Keck Interferometer is managed by JPL for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). The W.M. Keck Observatory is funded by Caltech, the University of California, and NASA, and is managed by the California Association for Research in Astronomy, Kamuela, HI.

Additional information and images are available on the Internet at:

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/pictures/keck
http://origins.jpl.nasa.gov

NASA News