The University of Cambridge and New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology (New Mexico Tech) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding formalising their collaboration to build the Magdalena Ridge Observatory Interferometer, the world's most ambitious optical telescope array.
The University of Cambridge and New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology (New Mexico Tech) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding formalising their collaboration to build the Magdalena Ridge Observatory Interferometer, the world's most ambitious optical telescope array.
The Memorandum was signed by the President of New Mexico Tech, Dr Daniel Lopez, and the head of the University of Cambridge’s Cavendish Laboratory, Professor Malcolm Longair, in the presence of University of Cambridge Vice-Chancellor Professor Alison Richard.
The Interferometer will be composed of several telescopes, spread out over an area larger than a football pitch and optically linked together to form a single 'synthetic aperture' 400 metres in diameter. This huge effective size yields images with much greater clarity than is available from any single telescope.
The array will produce images 100 times sharper than the Hubble Space Telescope and, for the first time, enable scientists to watch the final moments of dying stars, study the formation of planets around other stars and get close to the heart of active galaxies.
The Interferometer will be a key feature of the Magdalena Ridge Observatory in New Mexico, which is being funded by the United States Congress, administered by the US Office of Naval Research and overseen by the US Naval Research Laboratory.
The Cambridge team is led by Dr Chris Haniff and Dr David Buscher of the COAST Optical Interferometry Group at the Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge.
COAST - the Cambridge Optical Aperture Synthesis Telescope - revolutionised telescope design, when created in the 1990s, by pioneering the technique of linking an array of smaller telescopes in order to produce sharper images. The Magdalena Ridge Observatory Interferometer (MROI) is seen as COAST's natural successor.
Though similar projects are planned elsewhere in the world, the MROI will be unique in its ability to make true images of complex astronomical objects at much faster speeds than the other arrays.
The MROI will comprise 10 telescopes, each with a diameter of 1.4 metres and separated by distances of up to 400 metres. The signals from each telescope will be combined in a laboratory at the centre of the array.
The combined signals will form images equivalent to those obtained from a space-based telescope with a diameter of 400 metres; the Hubble Space Telescope has a diameter of just 2.4 metres.
Dr Chris Haniff said:
"The signing of this joint Memorandum of Understanding formalises an international collaboration that will bring unique opportunuities to astronomers in the UK and the USA. The realisation of the MROI will represent the culmination of our efforts, initiated in the 1980s, to apply the ideas of radio astronomy to optical astrophysics."
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