Download telescopes

The tools
Hot question of
Galileo’s time
• what’s at the centre:
earth or sun?
Sun-centered
universe
Galileo’s observations.
1. The Moon’s surface
Moon not a perfect “heavenly body”
Sun-centered
universe
Galileo’s observations.
2. Jupiter’s moons
Jupiter has moons!
> there are things that do not orbit the Earth!
Sun-centered
universe
Galileo’s observations.
3. Phases of Venus
Venus has phases, just like the Moon
Attributed them to Venus’ motion around the Sun
Copernicus is right!
Earth is not at the centre!
Hot questions of recent
time
• how do stars work?
• how are chemical elements
made?
• how big is the universe?
• what are “spiral nebulae”?
• what are quasars?
• are there planets around other
stars?
Better tools got us the
answers
Hot questions of
today and tomorrow
1. how do planets form?
2. how do stars form?
3. how do galaxies form?
4. what were the first objects to form after
the Big Bang?
• To address these questions, we need great
tools
• What makes a great tool?
Three things that
count
1. sharpness of image
•resolve structure - get into the details
2. wavelength coverage
•go after different physical processes in the same
object
3. ability to collect lots of light
•go after faint objects
•lots of detail on brighter objects
from the ground
from space
Three things that
count
1. sharpness of image
•resolve structure - get into the details
2. wavelength coverage
•go after different physical processes in the same
object
3. ability to collect lots of light
•go after faint objects
•lots of detail on brighter objects
M31
CO and optical
M81: starlight & dust
Three things that
count
1. sharpness of image
•resolve structure - get into the details
2. wavelength coverage
•go after different physical processes in the same
object
3. ability to collect lots of light
•go after faint objects
•lots of detail on brighter objects
Bigger is better
5mm diameter
10m diameter
The eye vs Keck
eye
Keck
advantage
photons/sec entering “instrument” :
4,000,000 x
π(5/2 mm)2
of these, actually detected:
90 x
~1%
~90%
< 1 sec
>1 hr
persistence (Integration time):
3600 x
bottom line:
π(10/2 m)2
~1.3x10 12 x
How do we go about it?
1. size
2. location, location location
Bigger is better
5mm diameter
10m diameter
How do we go about it?
1. size
2. location, location location
Location, location, location
•important for sharpness of image
•clarity of atmoshpere (“seeing”)
•or no atmosphere at all
•ability to detect different wavelengths
•Earth’s atmosphere absorbs light (esp. bad at IR)
•so... get above the atmoshpere
from the ground
from space
Hot questions of
today and tomorrow
1. how do planets form?
2. how do stars form?
3. how do galaxies form?
4. when did the first structures (galaxies,
stars...) form in the universe?
The future
(A Canadian perspective)
Three world-class
telescopes for
Canada
•
•
•
ALMA (2010)
JWST (2014)
TMT (2018 ? )
ALMA
(Atacama Large Millimetre Array)
radio interferometer consisting of 64 12m antennas
ALMA
(Atacama Large Millimetre Array)
•
•
at 5000m elevation in the Atacama desert (Chile)
location minimizes water vapour in the atmosphere
ALMA
(Atacama Large Millimetre Array)
•
Capabilities:
•
star formation in the early Universe:
•
•
heat emission from dust in distant galaxies
•
•
very high spatial resolution = study internal structures
molecular (cold) gas in distant galaxies
large collecting area = high sensitivity
JWST
(James Webb Space Telescope)
Next generation space telescope (successor to Hubble
with a 6.5m segmented mirror
2.8m diameter
6.5m (equivalent) diameter
JWST
(James Webb Space Telescope)
•
Capabilities:
•
•
•
infrared (heat) observations from space
very high spatial resolution:
•
•
study structural details of distant galaxies
search for planets around other stars
large collecting area = very sensitive
TMT
(Thirty Meter Telescope)
Extremely large optical telescope with adaptive optics
TMT(Thirty Meter Telescope)
•
•
•
30-m diameter (duh!)
3x bigger diameter than Keck => 9 times more collecting
area
Capabilities:
•
•
•
huge mirror: extreme light-gathering power
adaptive optics: resolve very fine details or small
separations
extremely complementary to JWST
Three world-class
telescopes for
Canada
•
ALMA (2010)
•
•
JWST (2014)
TMT (2018 ? )