Space VLBI—Today and tomorrow
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Very-long-baseline interferometry
space science
Spitzer Space Telescope
Space VLBI enables high angular resolution and high dynamic range imaging through an extension of ground-based VLBI. The TDRSS space VLBI experiments in the 1980s were followed by the first space VLBI imaging mission, VSOP, in the 1990s. The new century holds the promise of the VSOP-2 and ARISE missions, which aim for more sensitive, higher angular resolution and higher observing frequency capabilities. These missions will enable AGNs to be viewed much more clearly and will make broader science areas, including lower brightness sources, accessible. It is noted that in all space VLBI missions, international collaboration in global sense plays an important role.
Very-long-baseline interferometry
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Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) technique occupies a special place among tools for studying the Universe due to its record high angular resolution. The latter is in the inverse proportion to the length of interferometer baseline at any given wavelength. Until recently, the available angular resolution in radio domain of about 1 milliarcsecond at centimeter wavelengths was limited by the diameter of the Earth. However, many astrophysical problems require a higher angular resolution. The only way to achieve this at a given wavelength is to create an interferometer with the baseline larger than the Earth's diameter by placing at least one telescope in space. In February 1997, the first dedicated Space VLBI mission, VLBI Space Observatory Program (VSOP), led by the Institute of Space and Astronautical Sciences (Japan) has been launched (Hirabayashi 1997). The VSOP mission opens a new dimension in the development of radio astronomy of extremely high angular resolution and will be followed by other Space VLBI missions. A review of scientific drives and technological challenges of the next generation Space VLBI mission have been discussed, for example, by (1996) and (1997).
Very-long-baseline interferometry
Angular diameter
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Very-long-baseline interferometry
space science
Spitzer Space Telescope
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Aperture (computer memory)
Angular aperture
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Aperture (computer memory)
Angular aperture
Angular diameter
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Possibility of creating the x-ray telescope with use of polycapillary optics have been discussed during approximately ten years. However, only later this idea is getting reality owing to the improvement of manufacturing technology. Possibility of creating the telescope for a broad energy range is considered. For choice an optimal version of the telescope the experiments on transmission the x-ray beams of different energies through polycapillaries with channel diameters from 0.5 micrometers up to 30 micrometers carried out. As basic module the version of telescope with 100 sq.cm entrance area and focal distance from 1 to 2 meters is considered. For improvement of the angular resolution of proposes to arrange the polycapillary collimator with angular resolution of the order of 10-4 a radian before the telescope.
X-ray telescope
Collimator
X-Ray Astronomy
Optical telescope
Active optics
Reflecting telescope
X-ray optics
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Very-long-baseline interferometry
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Spectral resolution
Gamma-Ray Astronomy
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The expected progress of diffraction limited imaging methods and the apparition of new super resolution techniques like differential speckle interferometry would justify the construction of a 15 m class telescope dedicated to diffraction limited observations in order to fulfil the potential of high angular resolution astrophysics of 15 m class instruments, but the construction of such a telescope is conceivable only if its cost is much smaller than the cost of the equivalent all purposes VLT. In this paper we suggest that a telescope with a long and thin rectangular primary ( 16 m X.4m say ) , able to rotate around the optical axis to ensure a full coverage of the frequency plane, would do almost as well than a conventional 16 m aperture telescope for high angular resolution astronomy for a cost substancially reduced. The performances of such a Large Slit Aperture Telescope ( LSAT ) for classical and differential speckle interferometry are examined and the releases on the optical and mechanical constraints allowed by the dedication of the instrument to speckle techniques are discussed.
Aperture (computer memory)
Speckle imaging
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Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) technique occupies a special place among tools for studying the Universe due to its record high angular resolution. The latter is in the inverse proportion to the length of interferometer baseline at any given wavelength. Until recently, the available angular resolution in radio domain of about 1 milliarcsecond at centimeter wavelengths was limited by the diameter of the Earth. However, many astrophysical problems require a higher angular resolution. The only way to achieve this at a given wavelength is to create an interferometer with the baseline larger than the Earth’s diameter by placing at least one telescope in space. In February 1997, the first dedicated Space VLBI mission, VLBI Space Observatory Program (VSOP), led by the Institute of Space and Astronautical Sciences (Japan) has been launched (Hirabayashi 1997). The VSOP mission opens a new dimension in the development of radio astronomy of extremely high angular resolution and will be followed by other Space VLBI missions. A review of scientific drives and technological challenges of the next generation Space VLBI mission have been discussed, for example, by Gurvits et al. (1996) and Ulvestad et al. (1997).
Very-long-baseline interferometry
Radio Astronomy
Angular diameter
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