Meddelelse
Stærk og følsom sonde til sorte huller ankommer til Paranal
Instrumentet VLTI GRAVITY er samlet og testet
11. august 2015
Det nye instrument med navnet GRAVITY er afsendt til Chile, og det er blevet afprøvet på Paranalobservatoriet.
GRAVITY er et andengenerationsinstrument til VLTs interferometer, og med det kan der måles positioner og bevægelser for astronomiske objekter i en detaljerigdom, som er meget bedre end hvad der er muligt indtil nu[1]. GRAVITY bliver også et kraftigt redskab til at studere de fineste strukturer i svagtlysende objekter, og det vil kunne fungere som spektrometer. I denne funktion kombineres de fire store teleskoper på Paranal, så de tilsammen fungerer som ét teleskop med en diameter på mere end 100 meter.
Det nye instrument vil forstærke mulighederne for at studere området nær det sorte hul i Mælkevejens centrum for ESOs VLT-teleskop. Eksistensen af et sort hul med en masse fire millioner gange større end Solens kan fastslås med sikkerhed. GRAVITY kommer også til at undersøge området omkring det sorte hul, hvor tyngdekraften er ekstremt kraftig. Også de flares; udbrud, som kommer fra området tæt ved det sorte hul, samt hullets spin og hældning vil kunne måles. Det vil endda måske være muligt at teste Einsteins generelle relativitetsteori i dette ekstreme miljø. Binære stjerners bevægelse, exoplaneter, skiverne omkring unge stjerner og billeder af overfladen af stjerner er det også muligt at studere med det nye instrument.
21. juli 2015 så holdet på Paranal "de første striber" fra GRAVITY med en testlyskilde, og konstaterede, at de nu kunne få samme resultater som i Garching før instrumentet blev afsendt. Senere i år bliver GRAVITY installeret på de fire 1,8 meter Auxiliary Telescopes, og afprøvet på astronomiske objekter. Det sker i november 2015, og en gang i første halvdel af 2016 bliver instrumentet så taget i brug ved de fire store VLT-teleskoper.
Udviklingen af GRAVITY er styret af Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, i Garching,Tyskland, og der er involveret seks institutter i alt fra forskellige steder i Europa[2], og tillige ESO. Instrumentet kan indsamle lys enten fra de fire VLTteleskoper eller fra støtteteleskoperne, the Auxiliary Telescopes. Det er i det nærinfrarøde område af spektret, at GRAVITY fungerer.
GRAVITY presser mulighederne for interferometri til det yderste. Instrumentet vil kunne måle de relative positioner for to astronomiske objekter med en nøjagtighed på 10 mikrosekunder. Det svarer til at kunne se, hvor meget et menneskehår vokser på eet sekund, på en afstand af 100 meter! Der vil også kunne tages billeder af svage objekter, som vil være langt mere detaljerede end hvad VLTI indtil nu har kunnet levere.
[1] I GRAVITY kombineres integreret lyslederoptik, infrarøde bølgefront-sensorer til adaptiv optik, "fringe tracking" og stabilisering med laserstråler, samt en ny metode til at kontrollere hele dette system.
[2] Partnerne i GRAVITYkonsortiet er:
- Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, Garching, Tyskland
- LESIA, Observatoire de Paris, Université Paris Diderot, Meudon, Frankrig
- Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Heidelberg, Tyskland
- University of Cologne, Cologne, Tyskland
- Institut de Planétologie et d’Astrophysique de Grenoble (IPAG), Grenoble, Frankrig
- Laboratório de Sistemas, Instrumentação e Modelação em Ciências e Tecnologias do Ambiente e do Espaço (SIM), Lisbon and Porto, Portugal
- ESO, Garching, Tyskland
Links
Kontakter
ESON-Danmark
Ole J. Knudsen
Stellar Astrophysics Centre Aarhus Universitet
tlf 8715 5597 og 4059 4520
e-mail: eson-denmark@eso.org
Om meddelelsen
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