Blocking out Starlight

[Binary_Bark]

Astronomers have an array of tools to detect exoplanets. Now, Etienne Brasselet from the University of Bordeaux, France, and colleagues have proposed an update to one of these—a vortex coronagraph—that could allow exoplanets in systems of two or more stars to be spotted directly.

A vortex coronagraph imparts an outward spiral path to incoming light from a point source in space, bending the light along a route that is no longer coincident with the telescope’s camera. In doing so, it blocks light from the source, allowing faint objects close to the source to become visible—the objects’ photons pass through the device unhindered. Such objects include exoplanets orbiting host stars. But current vortex coronagraphs can only dim one source at a time—that’s ok for imaging a planet that has a single host star but not for one with multiple stars.

Full Story: https://physics.aps.org/synopsis-for/10.1103/PhysRevLett.118.203902

 

[Chevron]

That's cool.

 

[Binary_Bark]

That's cool.

It is good to see that there are still people doing something in science despite the SJW idiots and the snow flakes

 

[DA-LION-619]

It is good to see that there are still people doing something in science despite the SJW idiots and the snow flakes

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[Binary_Bark]

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I would have given up reading the news.

 

[DA-LION-619]

I would have given up reading the news.

True.