The scientific impact of reaching the diffraction limit with ELTs

Claire E. Max; Elizabeth Barton

doi:10.1117/12.861782

27 July 2010 The scientific impact of reaching the diffraction limit with ELTs

Claire E. Max, Elizabeth Barton

Proceedings Volume 7736, Adaptive Optics Systems II; 773602 (2010) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.861782
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2010, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

The new generation of extremely large telescopes (ELTs) will have key advantages over today's 8-10m telescopes. They will collect more light due to their larger area: light-gathering power scales as the telescope diameter D², so gains of a factor of ~10 or more are expected. Further, with adaptive optics performing at close to the diffraction limit, ELTs will have much higher point-source sensitivity. This is because for observations limited by background light from the sky, there will be less background included within a diffraction-limited area. Point-source sensitivity will improve at least as fast as D⁴, permitting gains of a factor of 70 - 100. We describe a few of the areas of astronomical science which stand to benefit from these huge performance improvements: 1) Direct imaging and spectroscopy of giant extrasolar planets, and of protoplanetary disks. 2) Resolved stellar populations and in particular the kinematics of stars close to the black hole at the Galactic Center, and 3) Properties of galaxies at redshifts from 1.5 to 7, to shed new light on the processes of galaxy assembly and evolution. These and other new science capabilities will enable ELTs to produce dramatic advances in astrophysical understanding.

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Claire E. Max and Elizabeth Barton "The scientific impact of reaching the diffraction limit with ELTs", Proc. SPIE 7736, Adaptive Optics Systems II, 773602 (27 July 2010); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.861782

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KEYWORDS

Stars

Adaptive optics

Telescopes

Planets

Galactic astronomy

Diffraction

Large telescopes

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