Future Astronomical Telescopes

The detection and observation of extrasolar planets will be one of the key projects in astrophysics in the next decades. Several instruments will be available to observe the faint signatures of planets and to study by spectroscopy their atmosphere and to detect water therein. 

One of these projects is the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) (see Fig. 9.9). Earth sized planets will be discovered and the atmospheres of giant planets can be studied with these new fascinating facilities. The detection of the planets will be made by precise velocity measurements and larger planets can be directly observed. The telescope will have a diameter of 42 m and be operated by ESO, the European Southern Observatory. 

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is a large, infrared-optimized space telescope. JWST will have a large mirror, 6.5 meters (21.3 feet) in diameter and a sunshield the size of a tennis court. The telescope will be placed at one of the 

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Micro-Opto-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MOEMS) will be widely integrated in new astronomical instruments for future Extremely Large Telescopes, as well as for existing lOm-class telescopes. The two major applications are programmable slit masks for Multi-Object Spectroscopy (see Ch. 12) and deformable mirrors for Adaptive Optics systems. Eirst prototypes have shown their capabilities. However, big efforts have stiU to be done in order to reach the requirements and to realize reliable devices. 

Today, the HST has accumulated a track record that far exceeds that of any other astronomical instrument and even the most optimistic hopes of its inventors and controllers. Each day, the telescope sends back 3 to 5 gigabytes of data, enough to fill the average home computer. It has made more than 330,000 separate observations of more than 25,000 astronomical targets, including stars, galaxies, planets, comets, and just about every other kind of astronomical object known to science. The HST has provided data for more than 2,700 scientific papers and produced an archive of more than 7.3 terabytes to keep astronomers busy for years into the future. 

Adaptive optic technology in the past has made use of piezoelectric actuators to deform a thin metallized glass mirror. This technology is expensive, bulky, and does not scale well to meet the future needs of astronomical and vision science systems. The trend in astronomy is toward telescopes with larger apertures to collect more light and increase... 

Miles, J. W., Hayward, T. L., and Houck, J. R., 1993, "SpectioCam-10 A 10 lixa Spectrograph/Camera for the Hale Telescope in Astronomical Infrared Spectroscopy Future Observational Directions A. S. P. Conference Series, Vol. 41, ed. S. Kwok, p. 407. 

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