Word: mirrored
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Technology, working with the University of California, will build the world's biggest optical telescope on the volcano's crest; construction could begin as early as 1986. The mammoth instrument, made possible by a $70 million grant to Caltech by the W.M. Keck Foundation, will have an innovative mirror system nearly 400 in. in diameter, which is twice the width and has four times the light-gathering capacity of today's reigning optical telescope, the 200-in. Hale device at Mount Palomar, Calif. When astronomers begin using the new telescope in 1992, it will push back the visible limits...
...light years through space before they speed down a telescope tube. But unless enough of them are collected, astronomers will not be able to see the galaxy's image. Gathering sufficient photons to register an image is accomplished by either taking long-exposure photographs or using a larger mirror system to collect the light. Many astronomical photographs already take hours to make, but even then not enough photons can be gathered for a clear view of very faint objects. Hence the need for bigger mirrors. Complains Palomar Observatory Director Gerry Neugebauer: "We're photon starved...
...advent of the computer has changed all that. Led by Astrophysicist Jerry Nelson, a team at the University of California designed an unorthodox mirror that will not be a continuous concave surface, like Hale's, but 36 hexagonal pieces of specially shaped glass, each 6 ft. across and 3 in. thick; the segments will be fit together and will move in concert to act as one giant parabolic mirror. That harmony is possible only with the aid of a computer- controlled sensing and positioning system, which will realign the components 100 times a second by as little...
Other design innovations follow in trickle-down fashion. Because a segmented mirror requires a much lighter support than a conventional one, the Keck telescope will weigh only 158 tons, a third the weight of the Hale instrument. Yet it will be able to perform miracles like taking infrared photographs that are 50 to 100 times sharper than any ever before made on earth. Says Caltech Astronomer Maarten Schmidt, famed for his discovery that quasars are the most distant and energetic objects ever observed: "In all aspects, a big telescope can do things better and faster than a small telescope...
Keck is only one of many telescopic brobdingnagians now in various stages of development around the world. In Tucson, scientists at the National Optical Astronomy Observatories (N.O.A.O.) and the University of Arizona are working on still another novel optics scheme: four 295-in. mirrors placed on a common mount. Each mirror would be 2 ft. thick but largely hollow, shaped like a honeycomb. The four could either be used in tandem, creating the equivalent of a gigantic 590-in. mirror, or separately. Overseas, Japanese astronomers also have their eyes on Mauna Kea; they hope to build a 295-in. telescope...