Tag: interferometry
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Hunting Exomoons With a Kilometric Baseline Interferometer
Introduction: The Quest for Exomoons Exomoons — moons orbiting planets outside our solar system — represent a compelling frontier in astronomy. Despite decades of search campaigns using transit timing variations, direct imaging, and radial velocity techniques, confirmed exomoons remain elusive. The potential discovery of exomoons would deepen our understanding of planet formation, satellite dynamics, and…
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Hunting Exomoons with a Kilometric Baseline Interferometer: A New Frontier in Exoplanetary Science
Introduction: Why Exomoons Matter From the bustling catalogs of exoplanets to the quiet curiosity about distant moons, astronomers have long sought to understand where planetary systems truly thrive. Exomoons — natural satellites orbiting planets outside our solar system — represent a crucial piece of that puzzle. They influence planetary formation, climate stability, and potential habitability.…
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Hunting Exomoons with a Kilometric Baseline Interferometer
Introduction: The Quest for Exomoons Despite decades of exoplanet discovery, exomoons—the natural satellites orbiting planets beyond our solar system—remain among the most elusive targets in astronomy. Traditional transit and radial velocity methods have yielded many planetary discoveries, yet moons around these worlds have proven harder to confirm. A Kilometric Baseline Interferometer (KBI) offers a bold…
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Artificial Stars Illuminate the Tarantula Nebula: VLT’s GRAVITY+ Upgrade
Unveiling a Cosmic Target: The Tarantula Nebula The Tarantula Nebula, a sprawling star-forming region in the Large Magellanic Cloud, is one of the most dynamic laboratories for studying how massive stars are born and evolve. Recently, astronomers at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) have turned to an inventive technique: guiding light to create artificial stars…
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Artificial Stars by Lasers: Tarantula Nebula and the VLT’s GRAVITY+ Breakthrough (Photo of the Day, Nov. 19, 2025)
Overview: Lasers, Interferometry, and the Tarantula Nebula On November 19, 2025, astronomers highlighted a striking demonstration of optical interferometry: lasers used to create artificial stars as part of the Very Large Telescope (VLT) and its interferometric upgrade, the VLTI GRAVITY+ system. The Tarantula Nebula, a luminous star-forming region in the Large Magellanic Cloud, serves as…
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GO-LoW: A New Frontier Revealing the Low-Frequency Radio Cosmos
Unveiling the Hidden Sky: GO-LoW’s Mission For centuries, humanity has peered at the stars, expanding our understanding of the cosmos with naked-eye observations and increasingly sophisticated telescopes. Yet a sweeping portion of the electromagnetic spectrum—the low-frequency radio sky—has remained largely unseen. Now, a NASA-funded concept study aims to change that with the Great Observatory for…
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GO-LoW: MIT Lincoln Laboratory and Haystack Observatory Unveil Hidden Galaxy’s Low-Frequency Frontier
Introduction: A New Window on the Cosmos For centuries, humanity has peered at the night sky with increasing sophistication, from naked-eye observations to space-based telescopes across the electromagnetic spectrum. Yet a vast portion of the radio universe remains hidden in low frequencies, from 15 meters to several kilometers in wavelength. A NASA-funded concept study, the…
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GO-LoW: The Solar System’s Hidden Radio Frontier Comes Into View
A New Frontier: Listening to the Low-Frequency Sky For centuries, humanity has studied the cosmos across the electromagnetic spectrum. Yet a wide, relatively uncharted swath remains—the low-frequency radio sky, with wavelengths from 15 meters to kilometers. MIT Lincoln Laboratory, MIT Haystack Observatory, and Lowell Observatory are spearheading a NASA-funded concept study known as the Great…
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Blazing Outflow Shrinks Mass of Universe’s Brightest Quasar by 10x
Revisiting a Cosmic Beacon The universe’s brightest known quasar, J0529, has puzzled astronomers for years. The object sits in the distant cosmos—nearly 12.5 billion light-years away when the universe was only about 1.5 billion years old—making it a prime target for peering into the early stages of galaxy and black hole growth. A fresh measurement…
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Finnish Astronomers Capture First-Ever Image of Two Supermassive Black Holes Orbiting Each Other in OJ287
Groundbreaking discovery: a visual confirmation of a cosmic ballet In a landmark achievement for astronomy, Finnish researchers have produced the first-ever radio image showing two supermassive black holes (SMBHs) orbiting each other. The partner SMBHs reside at the heart of the bright quasar OJ287, roughly 5 billion light-years from Earth in the constellation Cancer. The…