14 DAY TRIAL // Scientists operating the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT), on Mount Graham in Arizona, announce that their instrument has collected the most sharp and detailed image of the deep space ever taken from the surface of the planet. This is saying a lot, considering the location of the observatory, as well as the fact that the Earth's atmosphere generally tends to spoil the quality of astronomical observations. The level of clarity that the LBT exhibits represents a departure from that norm, but this was only made possible through the use of adaptive optics technology, Space reports.
What this means is that the lenses have the ability to bend according to the amount and type of light that strikes them. This allows the entire telescope to basically compensate for the distortions that the planet's atmosphere causes in the quality of incoming photons. Thanks to the use of adaptive optics, the telescope can basically snap images that are just as detailed as if they were taken from orbit. The $120 million LBT recently delivered images that were three times more detailed than those 4 possible with venerable Hubble Space Telescope. The Arizona telescope features two, 8.4-meter mirrors.
“The results on the first night were so extraordinary that we thought it might be a fluke, but every night since then the adaptive optics have continued to exceed all expectations. These results were achieved using only one of LBT's mirrors. Imagine the potential when we have adaptive optics on both of LBT's giant eyes,” says Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF) astronomer Simone Esposito, who is the leader of an Italian team that conducted observations with the telescope. The INAF team also played a part in constructing the adaptive optics instruments on the LBT, together with colleagues from the University of Arizona Steward Observatory. The newest addition to the LBT is called the First Light Adaptive Optics system (FLAO).
“This is an incredibly exciting time as this new adaptive optics system allows us to achieve our potential as the world's most powerful optical telescope. The successful results show that the next generation of astronomy has arrived, while providing a glimpse of the awesome potential the LBT will be capable of for years to come,” explains the director of the LBT, Richard Green. The Strehl ratio of the telescope – as in the clarity of its images – is somewhere around 82 to 84 percent using the new adaptive optics system. In other ground-based observatories, the ration is less than 1 percent.