Credit: iStockphoto
SYDNEY: There is a frustrating amount of light pollution in the night sky. But a new invention could "revolutionise" the way astronomers see the stars, said an Australian-German collaboration last night.
"Once up and running it will exceed the power of the James Webb telescope [which will be the successor to Hubble]," said project leader, astronomer Joss Bland-Hawthorn from the University of Sydney in Australia.
Space telescopes are able to view the stars without the interference of the Earth's atmosphere. On Earth, however, interference from the atmosphere can hinder astronomical 'seeing'.
80% efficiency
In particular, hydroxyl molecules in the Earth's atmosphere scatter infrared light, making the sky 'bright' in this part of the spectrum, and hindering infrared telescopes which are useful for seeing distant stars or objects obscured by dust.
"What we are doing now is developing an instrument [called a] photon integrating multi-mode spectrograph," said Bland-Hawthorn. "Good light goes forward, and bad light goes back."
The instrument, about the size of a microwave oven, consists of stacked layers of fibre optics that channel single photons. This enables the astronomers to focus on photons from particular objects - such as stars - and ignore the unwanted light from the rest of the sky.
"We are now suppressing the entire night sky with a level of 80% efficiency and this will completely revolutionise the way that astronomy is done," said Bland-Hawthorn.
Image enhancement
Bland-Hawthorn announced the development at an event marking a new international collaboration in astrophotonics, which applies light-collecting technology such as fibre optics to astronomy.
First generation prototypes of the spectrograph have been built and several hundred are expected to be made next year and implemented in Australian and international telescopes, initially on the 3.9-metre Anglo-Australian Telescope at Coonabarabran, NSW.
Fibre optics catch and transmit light, which makes them ideal for enhancing telescopic images of space. "Fibres act to suppress the persistent infrared light from the night sky," said Bland-Hawthorn.
New technique to "revolutionise" astronomy
Hmmm, a "photon integrating multi-mode spectrograph" eh! Interesting that the acronym is 'pimms' - wonder if that's what they were drinking when they came up with the idea? Hahaha.
Jim