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Kamuela - Oct 09, 2003 A major milestone in astronomical history took place recently at the W.M. Keck Observatory when scientists, for the first time, used a laser to create an artificial guide star on the Keck II 10-meter telescope to correct the blurring of a star with adaptive optics (AO). Laser guide stars have been used on smaller telescopes, but this is their first successful use on the current generation of the world's largest telescopes. The resulting image, captured by the NIRC2 infrared camera, was the first demonstration of a laser guide star adaptive optics (LGS AO) system on a large telescope. When complete, the LGS AO system will mark a new era of astronomy in which astronomers will be able to see virtually any object in the sky with the clarity of adaptive optics. "This is one of the most gratifying moments in all my years at Keck," remarked Dr. Frederic Chaffee, director of the W.M. Keck Observatory the evening the observations were made. "Like any positive first light result, there is much to be done before the system can be considered operational. But also like any positive first light result, it shows that it can be done, and gives us great optimism that our goals are not impossible dreams, but are instead attainable realities." Adaptive optics is a technique that has revolutionized ground-based astronomy through its ability to remove the blurring of starlight caused by the earth's atmosphere. Its requirement of a relatively bright "guide star" in the same field of view as the scientific object of study has generally limited the use of AO to about one percent of the objects in the sky. To overcome this restriction, in 1994 the W.M. Keck Observatory began working with Lawrence Livermore National Labs (LLNL) to develop an artificial guide star system. By using a laser to create a "virtual star," astronomers can study any object in the vicinity of much fainter (up to 19th magnitude) objects with adaptive optics and reduce its dependence on bright, naturally occurring guide stars. Doing so will increase sky coverage for the Keck adaptive optics system from an estimated one percent of all objects in the sky, to more than 80 percent. "This new capability of using a laser guide star with a large telescope has invited astronomers to start exploring the night sky in a much more comprehensive manner," said Adam Contos, optics engineer at the W.M. Keck Observatory. "In the future, I would expect most major observatories to be installing similar systems to take advantage of this incredible enhancement to their AO capabilities." In January 2001, after more than seven years in development, the Keck and LLNL teams celebrated the completion of the Keck laser guide star system. The artificial star results when light from a 15-watt dye laser causes a naturally occurring layer of sodium atoms to glow about 90 km (56 miles) above the earth's surface. It would take another two years of sophisticated research and design before the laser system could be integrated into the Keck II adaptive optics system. In the early morning hours of September 20th, all subsystems finally came together to reveal the unique capability of the Keck LGS AO system and its potential to resolve extremely faint objects.
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