Imaging the Surfaces of Stars

Conférence de John D. Monnier, University of Michigan

Résumé :
Under even the best atmospheric conditions, telescope diffraction fundamentally limits the angular resolution for astronomical imaging. Using interferometry, we can coherently combine light from widely-separated telescopes to overcome the single-telescope diffraction limit to boost our imaging resolution by orders of magnitude.

I will review recent technical and scientific breakthroughs made possible by the Michigan Infrared Combiner of the CHARA Array on Mt. Wilson, CA, with baselines of 330 meters allowing near-infrared imaging with sub-milli-arcsecond resolution. I will present the first resolved images of main sequence stars besides the Sun, focusing on the oblate and gravity-darkened photospheres of rapidly rotating stars.  We can now also resolve the interacting components of close binary stars for the first time and I will highlight the recent remarkable eclipse of epsilon Aurigae as viewed by CHARA.  

Présentée par le Groupe Astronomie et astrophysique du Département de physique de l'Université de Montréal. Cette conférence est destinée à des spécialistes dans le domaine de l'astrophysique et sera donnée en anglais.