Physics – Optics
Scientific paper
Dec 1992
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1992aas...181.6302m&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, 181st AAS Meeting, #63.02; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 24, p.1220
Physics
Optics
Scientific paper
Long-baseline interferometry at optical and infrared wavelengths is rapidly maturing so that we can expect sub-milliarcsecond studies of bright stars within the next few years. By the end of the decade, several multiple-telescope arrays (whose progress is briefly reported on here) should be providing a wealth of information from aperture synthesis imaging and from parametric fits to visibility curves. Because of their numbers and brightness, stars will provide an immediate scientific payoff once these facilities are operational. Many classes of problems in stellar astrophysics can be addressed through single or multi-parameter fits to accurately calibrated visibility curves to extract the required object information. Such problems include (but are certainly not limited to): very precise astrometry, determination of stellar angular diameters (from which effective temperatures and emergent fluxes are derived), direct measurement of limb darkening, geometric calibration of the Cepheid period-luminosity relation, rotational oblatenes, measurement of orbits of binary systems (to provide masses and luminosities), surveys for new binaries and unseen companions, distance calibrations through the resolution of double-lined spectroscopic binaries, etc. It is fortunate that such a diversity of scientific opportunities not requiring full imaging exists at visible wavelengths. While imaging from distributed optical arrays is not yet a proven capability, we can expect the first such high-resolution images from observations of objects observed in the IR. Pre-main sequence and young stellar objects as well as dust shells surrounding older stars will be particularly exciting imaging targets in the IR. Such objects are likely to exhibit sufficient complexity to require imaging for full understanding of their morphologies and astrophysics. Both ``simple'' interferometry and imaging will be significantly enhanced by adaptive optics with major gains resulting from even partial wavefront compensation. Adaptive optics using ``laser guide stars'' may be pre-requisite to the effective utilization of ground-based optical arrays for extragalactic problems.
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