Recent Advances in Optical Interferometry

In their article, Hajian and Armstrong discuss the construction of new, highly sophisticated optical interferometers. One such interferometer, the Navy Prototype Optical Interferometer (located on Anderson Mesa in Arizona) will deploy six apertures with 15 baselines by the end of the year. Other interferometers with sophisticated advanced optics include the Keck Interferometer, which includes two ten-meter telescopes with a baseline of 85 meters, and the Very Large Telescope Interferometer in Chile, which consists of four eight-meter telescopes (to see the full range of optical long baseline interferometers currently in operation or proposed for future construction, please see this table). Also in consideration are space-borne interferometers, including the Space Interferometer Mission, set to launch in 2006. Hajian and Armstrong are careful to note that unlike radio interferometers, the only sources which can be mapped using traditional calculation methods with optical interferometers are binary stars. Custom algorithms have been and are being created to analyze and map more complex sources, such as elliptical stars or stars with jets or other out-flowing material.

The Keck Interferometer (Anderson Mesa, AZ)

www.jpl.nasa.gov/files/images/ browse/kecks50b.gif

An artist’s conception of the Space Interferometer Mission (SIM):

The world's first space-borne operational long-baseline optical interferometer

origins.jpl.nasa.gov/education/ ipff/ipff14.html

A sample image from the Very Large Telescope Interferometer of the Butterfly Nebula

May 27, 1998

http://www.schoolsobservatory.org.uk/astro/textb/tele/world/vlt.htm