Researchers at Australian National University (ANU) introduces new laser guide star technology.
Nithya Satheesh
Assistant Professor Celine D’Orgeville | credits: Australian National University
Australian National University (ANU) has introduced a new technique to help telescopes see the objects in the night sky more clearly and thereby helping to fight against many dangerous and costly space debris.
Space debris or space junk refers to the big objects like dead satellites left by humans in space. It is a major threat to space infrastructure of about 700 billion US dollars delivering services all around the world every day. The researchers of ANU were working on adaptive optics to remove the cloudiness in the atmosphere caused by the turbulence. The adaptive optics can be applied on a new guide star laser, thus the infrastructure now has a line of defence to the space debris. The laser will help better in identifying, tracking and safely moving space junks.
Researchers from ANU along with colleagues from Electro Optic Systems (EOS), RMIT University of Japan and USA have developed the optics that directs the star laser. EOS is incorporating guide star laser technology into tool kits to enable high-bandwidth ground to space satellite communications. The laser beams which were earlier used for tracking space debris were not visible and they used infrared light. But in the case of a new guide star laser, it propagates an orange beam of light into the night sky and thereby creating an artificial star to accurately measure the distortion between Earth and space. This orange beam of light enables the adaptive optics to make the images of the object clear. It can also guide another powerful infrared laser to track the debris and move them out of the way to avoid collisions.
According to Professor Celine D’Orgeville, lead researcher, adaptive optics is just like removing twinkles from the star. The telescope sees an object in space like a blob of light when adaptive optics is not included. But with adaptive optics, images of the object appear more clearer and sharper. Because adaptive optics cuts the atmosphere distortion of light travelling between the Earth and the objects, thereby helping in seeing the objects clearly through a telescope. Both the adaptive optics systems of ANU and the guide star laser of EOS are located at the ANU Mount Stromlo Observatory in Canberra, Australia.
Both the researchers from ANU and EOS are currently working together on the new technology to make it apply in a wide range of other fields like laser communication between Earth and space. The fund for the research was provided by the Australian Government’s Cooperative Research Centre Program, EOS, ANU, RMIT University and partners in Japan and the USA.