Software squeezes more data out of Webb Telescope for imaging exoplanets
摘要
研究人员开发出一种新的软件包，可优化望远镜的物理模型，从而更好地模拟观测之间由配置和指向细微变化引起的噪声，实现低噪声的行星成像。该工作核心在于点扩散函数，即望远镜对单点光源因硬件缺陷和指向精度限制而产生模糊扩散的数学描述。这一方法有助于在恒星亮度远高于行星光线的情况下，更有效地直接成像系外行星或分析其大气透射光。
With a huge and still-growing catalog of exoplanets, researchers are anxious to take the next steps: trying to infer what conditions are like on them, either by imaging them directly or by capturing the light that has passed through their atmosphere. Both are substantial challenges, given the presence of stars that are far, far brighter than light that has come to us via the planet.
While telescopes can be fitted with devices called coronagraphs that block out much of a star's light, there are limits to their effectiveness, caused by noise from subtle variations in the telescope's configuration and pointing between observations. Now, researchers have developed a new software package that optimizes a physical model of the telescope in a way that allows us to better model these differences, producing low-noise imaging of exoplanets.
Point spreads
Central to this work is the concept of a point spread function. If you use a telescope to image a single point of light, it will not appear that way in the actual image. Instead, it will be slightly blurry and spread out, due to imperfections in the telescope hardware and the limits of our ability to keep it pointed accurately through the time it takes to image something. The mathematical description of how a telescope distorts a point of light is called its point spread function.
转载信息
评论 (0)
暂无评论，来留下第一条评论吧