Posted on 02/23/2007 12:18:36 AM PST by SunkenCiv
The principle of the interferometric technique is to combine the light collected by two or more distant telescopes. The greater the distance between the telescopes, the sharper the observations obtained... The first results presented in this issue cover various fields of stellar and circumstellar physics. Two papers deal with Herbig Ae/Be stars, a class of pre-main sequence stars with masses ranging from 2 to 5 solar masses and with ages younger than 10 Myr. These articles present observations of the stellar system MWC 297... and the lower-mass, less active system HD 104237. They offer new information about the geometry of the surrounding disks and of the associated outflowing winds. These results illustrate that AMBER is a major tool for understanding both the very close environment of young stars and their circumstellar gas and dust disks, where planet formation takes place... As illustrated above, AMBER's capabilities, combined with the current VLTI performance, allow astronomers to obtain a profusion of new results on various hot topics in stellar physics, from the earliest to the latest stages of the stellar evolution. When the VLTI achieves full performance, AMBER should be able to reach its most ambitious objectives: observation of the dust tori in active galactic nuclei and of the hot extrasolar planets close to their parent stars.
(Excerpt) Read more at eurekalert.org ...
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Hmm.
Thanks.
http://www.atnf.csiro.au/vlbi/evlbi/
eVLBI is the process of using high speed networks to connect radio telescopes separated by large distances (100-1000s of km) instead of the traditional method of recording onto magnetic tape and shipping the recorded data to a central correlator.
I am curious as to what degree this improved "spectral" resolution might allow the discriminaton of planets amid the glare of home stars.
If one isolated those particular frequencies associated with atmospheric oxygen and water, adjusting for the speed of orbital motion, would it be possible to discern the reflection of some planets which might otherwise be lost in the broad spectrum of the parent star?
Reflection?
I have no personal interest in a planet that glows with its own light. Planet Las Vegas not necessarily withstanding.
I was speaking of the light the hypothetical planet reflects from its parent star. The refracted and reflected starlight should have a very small but perhaps measurable Doppler shift as it revolves around in its orbit.
If we were looking specifically for those time-shifted frequencies, rather than light in general, it might be possible to resolve a distant earthlike planet.
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