Re:Taking a sharper look at the M87 black hole
by torrance on Friday April 21, 2023 @10:01AM
(#35653885)
Interferometry relies on measuring the interference pattern between two points simultaneously measuring incoming radio waves. Each element of a baseline must be measured at the same time.
If we were to allow the Earth to rotate around the Sun and measure components of the same baseline at different times, we would violate this.
Re:Taking a sharper look at the M87 black hole
by godshatter on Friday April 21, 2023 @10:14AM
(#35654075)
One telescope each at the L4 and L5 Earth-Sun Lagrange points, coordinating their activities?
Re:Taking a sharper look at the M87 black hole
by dylan604 on Friday April 21, 2023 @10:12AM
(#35654043)
what about space telescopes in orbit at earth's radius at various points in the orbit?
Re:Taking a sharper look at the M87 black hole
by rcxdude on Sunday April 23, 2023 @08:44AM
(#35675777)
The concept has been done, though not with such a large baseline: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spektr-R
I don't know what exactly the tradoffs are, but I suspect this approach has a lower sensitivity due to size of the dishes, it's more difficult to get enough telescopes to form a good image, and transmitting the data back is likely to be a challenge (the black hole observations were shipped on hard drives instead of transmitted via the internet. Even achieving a broadband-speed transmission rate with a deep space object is difficult)
Is there a way to use the diameter of the earth "at this point in the orbit" to effectively make it into the diameter of the earth's orbit?