NASA Mega-Telescope Gears up to Study Cosmos

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Jane Platt 818-354-0880 jane.platt@jpl.nasa.gov Dec. 5, 2007
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

NEWS RELEASE: 2007-141

NASA Mega-Telescope Gears up to Study Cosmos

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, Ariz.
* Marc Kuchner, Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
* Eugene Serabyn, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

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 what's called "zodiacal dust." This 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.

The Keck Interferometer links the Keck Observatory's two 10-meter (33-foot) telescopes.
It is part of NASA's ongoing quest to search for planets orbiting other stars. JPL, a
division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Keck
Interferometer for NASA. The Keck Interferometer was developed by JPL, the W.M.
Keck Observatory and the Michelson Science Center at Caltech. The W.M. Keck
Observatory is funded by Caltech, the University of California and NASA, and is
managed by the California Association for Research in Astronomy, Kamuela, Hawaii.

More information on the Keck Interferometer is at

http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov/Keck/keck_index.cfm . Click "Visualizations" for a
virtual tour and animation.
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