NASA mega-telescope gears up to study cosmos

December 11, 2007, Pasadena, CA--The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has selected three teams of scientists to begin studying disks of dust around nearby stars starting in February 2008, using the Keck Interferometer in Mauna Kea, Hawaii. This sophisticated new system combines the observing power of the two large Keck telescopes into a single mega-telescope.

The announcement follows completion of the Keck Interferometer's technology phase, in which its detectors, starlight trackers, active optics, and computer control systems were installed, tested, and integrated. Testing was conducted on stars, in the first on-sky demonstration of long-baseline nulling interferometry, a technique that "cancels" the bright light from the star to see fainter material around it.

The newly selected teams are led by the following principal investigators: Phil Hinz, University of Arizona (Tucson, AZ); Marc Kuchner, Goddard Space Flight Center (Greenbelt, MD); and Eugene Serabyn, Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL; Pasadena, CA).

The teams will study stars with known debris disks and look for signs of dust around other stars. Some debris disks are remnants from planet formation; others contain material kicked up when asteroids collide. Asteroid collisions in our solar system produce a disk of "zodiacal dust" that can be seen when sunlight scatters small dust grains to produce a faint band of light visible against a dark sky just after sunset or before dawn. The Keck Interferometer science teams are looking for comparable, although much brighter, disks in other planetary systems that could indicate planets orbiting other stars.

For more information, visit planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov/Keck/keck_index.cfm.