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Interferometer Spots Galaxy at 40M Lightyears

Posted by michael on from the i-spy dept.

techno-vampire writes "JPL announces that a pair of telescopes used as an optical interferometer have detected a galaxy 40 million light years away, smashing the previous record of 3,000 light years. This feat, using infrared, has given us a far more detailed look into the center of a galaxy, and opened up a whole new field of research."

4 of 60 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Hubble Deep Field Images? by orkysoft · · Score: 5, Informative
    NGC 4151 is 40 million light years from Earth, far beyond the most distant object previously detected by this type of telescope system, which was about 3,000 light years from Earth.

    Ah, that explains.

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  2. Re:Hubble Deep Field Images? by lookingup · · Score: 5, Informative

    The important point here is that they were able to use the two Keck "big guns" together to simulate the resolution of a much bigger telescope. Until recently, only bright stars were bright enough to make these sort of observations. The Keck and ESO interferometers are light-years ahead both because of their large mirrors and because they're using advanced image correction via small, flexible mirrors to correct for the distortion caused by our atmosphere. This makes the light train much more coherent and makes it much easier to get good interference patterns. Therefore they can observe much fainter objects.

  3. The Devil's in the DETAILS by Makoss · · Score: 4, Insightful

    To hopefully help quell the rush of prople who don't RTFA. Because the post is a bit. . .misleading.

    "NGC 4151 is 40 million light years from Earth, far beyond the most distant object previously detected by this type of telescope system, which was about 3,000 light years from Earth."

    "this type of telescope system"

    They are refering SPECIFICALLY to the technique used to image this. NOT 'most distant object imaged'.

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  4. Just wait for another 10 years by Radical+Rad · · Score: 5, Interesting
    When the MAXIM flys in about another decade, it will be able to resolve images (in Xray) up to a million times better than anything now available. It will allow imaging of blackholes, that is actual visualization of the Shwarzchild radius as well as observing other stars as well as we can our own sun today. To do this the telescopes must be in orbit since the high frequency radiation scatters too easily in the atmosphere. Even at the infrared wavelengths that the Keck used, adaptive optics were needed to make their observations from the ground.

    I would like to see an array of cheap telescopes stationed at the LaGrangian points to do interferometry at any wavelength. Gravity wave detection could also be included in the mix. There would be no need for elaborate vibration damping and not being limited to the simple L shape that current ground based gravity detectors use, we would be able to triangulate gravity wave disturbances in 3 dimensions!

    ...I sense a change in the force...