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After 12 years of development, the MATISSE interferometry instrument has been installed during the last 3 months at ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT). The instrument combines four of the VLT telescopes to obtain an interferometer with an extremely high spatial resolution. This instrument allows astronomers to study the environment of young stars, the surfaces of stars and Active Galactic Nuclei in the mid-infrared wavelength range. In February 2018, MATISSE successfully achieved ‘First Light’. This achievement consummates the decade-long efforts of a large number of engineers and astronomers in europe, including the infrared interferometry research group at the MPIfR in Bonn, Germany.
MATISSE is a second-generation Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) instrument providing extremely high spatial resolution. It is a combined imager and spectrograph for interferometry in the mid-infrared 3–5 μm spectral region (L- and M-bands) and the 8–13 μm region (N-band). MATISSE builds on the experience gained with the VLTI’s first-generation instruments, but vastly extends their capability to produce detailed images.
The instrument exploits multiple telescopes and the wave nature of the light to produce more detailed images of celestial objects than can be obtained with any existing or planned single telescope. High- resolution imaging in the infrared is technically demanding but has yielded spectacular results in detecting planet-forming discs around stars, images of the surfaces of stars, and dusty discs around Active Galactic Nuclei.
The target of the First Light observation was the bright star Sirius (see Fig. 1). Figure 2 shows the ESO VLT, which consists of four telescopes with a mirror diameter of 8.2 m (the Unit Telescopes) and four telescopes with 1.8 m mirror diameter (the Auxiliary Telescopes).
[...] “Single telescopes can achieve a maximum spatial resolution that is proportional to their mirror diameter. To obtain a higher resolution, we combine or interfere the light from four different VLT telescopes”, says Bruno Lopez from the Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur at Nice, the principal investigator of MATISSE. “This interferometric technique can provide us with a high spatial resolution that is proportional to the distance between the telescopes. Therefore, MATISSE is able to deliver the sharpest images ever in the 3–13 μm wavelength range.
Gerd Weigelt, Coinvestigator at the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy, adds: “MATISSE will also allow us to obtain a high spectral resolution in addition to high spatial resolution. Therefore, we will be able to perform our studies in many different spectral channels distributed across an individual spectral line and even measure the velocity distribution in astronomical objects, which is very essential to reveal the physical properties of the objects.”
The MATISSE spectral bands will provide mid-infrared high angular resolution images that can be linked to observations at similar resolution in the submillimetre domain, with the Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA). MATISSE can be seen as a successor to MIDI (the MID-infrared Interferometric instrument) and a precursor of the future METIS instrument for the ELT.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by bob_super on Wednesday March 07 2018, @10:14PM (6 children)
Space telescopes are amazing, but JWST will have a short life for the amount of dough spent on it, likely already has a fully booked schedule until the day it warms up, and can't be serviced.
Having permanent ground observatories to correlate the results and keep the experiments going is definitely better than just having all the eggs in one basket.
Now we just need a giant radiotelescope hidden from human interference on the far side of the moon. Somewhat limited by moon rotation, but more scalable and serviceable than a floating one.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by takyon on Wednesday March 07 2018, @10:32PM (5 children)
* JWST will have a short life for the amount of dough spent on it
The lifetime for JWST is estimated at 5-10 years. This is likely a conservative estimate based on aggressive use of the propellant that is used for station keeping and rotation. It should be closer to the 10 year lifespan, and possibly years more. Of course, my prediction doesn't take into account unexpected failure of the telescope's systems, just the expected usage of propellant.
* likely already has a fully booked schedule until the day it warms up
True, but that is hopefully also true of the Very Large Telescope, which is no small project, and other prominent ground-based telescopes. Utilization should be near 100%, although there can be some discretionary time or even time for amateurs/the general public to decide where to point it.
* can't be serviced.
If JWST delivers exciting results, there will be a push to service it towards the end of its lifespan. It wasn't designed to be serviced, but the thing is not going to be that far away. Servicing could be done with a robotic craft once it is clear that the telescope's systems are unusable or the propellant is almost gone. 2019 + 5-10 years = 2024-2029, at which time SpaceX's BFR should be ready to provide cheap, high mass launches. Add in the cost of the robotic spacecraft, which doesn't need the careful testing that caused JWST to go over budget, because JWST already reached the expected end of its mission. It is OK for the servicing craft to fail if scientists already got the 5-10 years of infrared observations that they were promised.
Let's say that a robotic craft is physically incapable of refilling the JWST's propellants. You could instead have the craft attach itself to part of the JWST and take over the task of station keeping and rotation.
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(Score: 2) by bob_super on Wednesday March 07 2018, @11:09PM (1 child)
TIL that JWST doesn't need a dewar and/or giant block of exotic ice. Sunshield plus passive cooling is enough to keep you at 50K.
Maybe, instead of the complex L2 halo orbit, we should throw the thing perpendicular to the ecliptic plane, fast enough that it wouldn't come back before at least 30 years (or never). That would make cooling easier, keep it away from the planets, at the cost of a bit (ok, a lot) of bandwidth.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday March 07 2018, @11:45PM
I think your proposal would make it significantly harder to communicate with it than the planned orbit. Data rate will go way down because it would move far away from Earth. It will be more difficult to keep it pointing away from the Sun and other hazards (it can't point at the Moon or Earth either in planned orbit).
The orbit also doesn't seem that complex. It just has an expiration date. But it might be salvageable or serviceable even if it slips into a regular heliocentric orbit.
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(Score: 3, Interesting) by c0lo on Wednesday March 07 2018, @11:55PM (2 children)
Weird sense of distance you have in the context of servicing missions.
The L2 is 1.511e11m away, the Moon is 3.84e8m away.
Keeping into account we haven't serviced yet any moon satellite, I'm not confident at all JWST will be serviced ever.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday March 08 2018, @02:25AM (1 child)
It's not that difficult. Just think of it as sending a second spacecraft to the same location. Travel time is less than a month.
Remote operation (such as semi-autonomous rovers on Mars) and propulsion (ion engines) have advanced greatly in recent years. The ion engines allow for delicate orbit insertions. Allocate a couple hundred million dollars, and they should be able to figure out a way to service the JWST.
There hasn't been any reason to service a Moon satellite because none of them have had anywhere near the importance of Hubble or JWST. But just as we are thinking about reusable rockets, we should be thinking about serviceable satellites and telescopes. Not even considering an attempt is a waste. Even if space telescopes with larger apertures get launched, JWST is going to remain a useful tool for decades.
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(Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday March 08 2018, @03:19AM
No way, if I'd have them, they'd be mine and I'm not allowing them to.
Since we haven't done it, anything you say is a projection of the current potential, not a reality.
I'm skeptical (and cynical)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford