Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
2008-09-09
Science 321:1335-1337,2008
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
Science, 5th September 2008. 18 pages, 7 figures (7 JPG files), including Supporting Online Material. Version with higher reso
Scientific paper
10.1126/s=
A direct measurement of the universe's expansion history could be made by observing in real time the evolution of the cosmological redshift of distant objects. However, this would require measurements of Doppler velocity drifts of about 1 centimeter per second per year, and astronomical spectrographs have not yet been calibrated to this tolerance. We demonstrate the first use of a laser frequency comb for wavelength calibration of an astronomical telescope. Even with a simple analysis, absolute calibration is achieved with an equivalent Doppler precision of approximately 9 meters per second at about 1.5 micrometers - beyond state-of-the-art accuracy. We show that tracking complex, time-varying systematic effects in the spectrograph and detector system is a particular advantage of laser frequency comb calibration. This technique promises an effective means for modeling and removal of such systematic effects to the accuracy required by future experiments to see direct evidence of the universe's putative acceleration.
Araujo-Hauck Constanza
D'Odorico Sandro
Hänsch Theodor W.
Holzwarth Ronald
Kentischer Thomas
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