Astronomy Picture of the Day

A Telescope Laser Creates an Artificial Star


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#66613 by @ 08.02.2005 00:00 - nach oben -
A Telescope Laser Creates an Artificial Star

Explanation: What do you get when you combine one of the world's most powerful telescopes with a powerful laser? An artificial star. Monitoring fluctuations in brightness of a genuine bright star can indicate how the Earth's atmosphere is changing, but many times no bright star exists in the direction where atmospheric information is needed. Therefore, astronomers have developed the ability to create an artificial star where they need it -- with a laser. Subsequent observations of the artificial laser guide star can reveal information so detailed about the blurring effects of the Earth's atmosphere that much of this blurring can be removed by rapidly flexing the mirror. Such adaptive optic techniques allow high-resolution ground-based observations of real stars, planets, nebulae, and the early universe. Above, a laser beam shoots out of the Keck II 10-meter telescope on Mauna Kea in Hawaii in 2002, creating an artificial star.

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#66614 by @ 08.02.2005 00:01 - nach oben -
scheisse, d'barbara isch hüt wieder andersch schnell gsi, ha gar nöd mitübercho wiä si sich igloggt het!
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#66615 by @ 08.02.2005 00:02 - nach oben -
gsehsch nüme richtig?
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#66617 by @ 08.02.2005 00:46 - nach oben -
schints hä