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Australian Astronomers Make Interstellar Hologram

Posted by Zonk on from the floaty-transparent-and-informative dept.

KentuckyFC writes "Australian astronomers say the way a beam of light from a pulsar is scattered by interstellar dust is analogous to the way a hologram is made. But to reconstruct an image of this dust, you've got to know what the light was like before it was distorted. With an impressive piece of computer optimization, these astronomers have worked out the 8000 coefficients that determine the light field and so have been able to produce an image of the interstellar medium (abstract on the physics arXiv)."

2 of 22 comments (clear)

  1. a white hole? by URL+Scruggs · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Having done that, Walker and co say the information can be used to correct other observations of the [sic] such as timing measurements on the pulsar beams. The authors left the word out as if they were going to put it in later once they understood it, no wonder I don't understand the story. Maybe they've discovered whitespace.
  2. Re:Genetic Algorithm by StonedYoda47 · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Well, the correct results were a giant Foster's can, so yeah it was pretty easy for the Aussies to recognize. And yes, I realize that Foster's in Australia is not the same as Foster's in America. I prefer VB or Cascade myself.