The Carnival of Space 583 is up at Universe Today.
Universe Today – Next Generation Telescopes Could Use “Teleportation” to Take Better Images
The standard technique of locally recording the light at each telescope results in too much noise to work for weak light sources. As a result, all current optical telescope arrays work by combining the light from different telescopes directly at a single measurement station. The price to pay is attenuation of the light in transmission to the measurement station. This loss is a severe limitation for constructing very large telescope arrays in the optical regime (current optical arrays have sizes of max. ~300 meters) and will ultimately limit the resolution once effective stabilization techniques are in place.”
A Harvard team – led by Emil Khabiboulline, a graduate student at Harvard’s Department of Physics – suggests relying on quantum teleportation. In quantum physics, teleportation describes the process where properties of particles are transported from one location to another via quantum entanglement. This would allow for images to be created without the losses encountered with normal interferometers.
Entanglement, a property of quantum mechanics, allows us to send a quantum state from one location to another without physically transmitting it, in a process called quantum teleportation. Here, the light from the telescopes can be “teleported” to the measurement station, thereby circumventing all transmission loss. This technique would in principle allow for arbitrary sized arrays assuming other challenges such as stabilization are dealt with.
Light could be compressed into small quantum memories that preserve the quantum information. Such quantum memories could consist of atoms that interact with the light.
Compression into memory would use up significantly fewer entangled pairs compared to memoryless schemes such as the one by Gottesman et al. For example, for a star of magnitude 10 and measurement bandwidth of 10 GHz, our scheme requires ~200 kHz of entanglement rate using a 20-qubit memory instead of the 10 GHz before. Such specifications are feasible with current technology.
This method could lead to some entirely new opportunities when it comes to astronomical imaging. For one, it will dramatically increase the resolution of images, and perhaps make it possible for arrays to achieve resolutions that are equivalent to that of a 30 km mirror. In addition, it could allow astronomers to detect and study exoplanets using the direct imaging technique with resolutions down to the micro-arsecond level.
A space-based optical telescope on the scale of 10,000 kilometers could be enabled.
Arxiv – Quantum-Assisted Telescope Arrays
Universe Today – The Milky Way Could Be Spreading Life From Star to Star
Chandra X-Ray Space Telescope blog – Milky Way’s Youngest Pulsar Exposes Secrets of Star’s Demise
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
Known for identifying cutting edge technologies, he is currently a Co-Founder of a startup and fundraiser for high potential early-stage companies. He is the Head of Research for Allocations for deep technology investments and an Angel Investor at Space Angels.
A frequent speaker at corporations, he has been a TEDx speaker, a Singularity University speaker and guest at numerous interviews for radio and podcasts. He is open to public speaking and advising engagements.
If they want an Icy Moons Orbiter, they need to use a Kilopower reactor for the energy to run the instruments & to run an electric drive to get it from LEO to Jupiter.
If they want an Icy Moons Orbiter they need to use a Kilopower reactor for the energy to run the instruments & to run an electric drive to get it from LEO to Jupiter.
Is there a reason this won’t work on Earth? Much easier to make a 50 km optical array in a desert somewhere than in orbit. Even though it’s not as cool and has optical interference from the atmosphere.
Is there a reason this won’t work on Earth? Much easier to make a 50 km optical array in a desert somewhere than in orbit. Even though it’s not as cool and has optical interference from the atmosphere.
Is there a reason this won’t work on Earth? Much easier to make a 50 km optical array in a desert somewhere than in orbit. Even though it’s not as cool and has optical interference from the atmosphere.
Is there a reason this won’t work on Earth? Much easier to make a 50 km optical array in a desert somewhere than in orbit. Even though it’s not as cool and has optical interference from the atmosphere.
If they want an Icy Moons Orbiter, they need to use a Kilopower reactor for the energy to run the instruments & to run an electric drive to get it from LEO to Jupiter.
If they want an Icy Moons Orbiter they need to use a Kilopower reactor for the energy to run the instruments & to run an electric drive to get it from LEO to Jupiter.
Is there a reason this won’t work on Earth? Much easier to make a 50 km optical array in a desert somewhere than in orbit. Even though it’s not as cool and has optical interference from the atmosphere.
If they want an Icy Moons Orbiter, they need to use a Kilopower reactor for the energy to run the instruments & to run an electric drive to get it from LEO to Jupiter.