Palomar Testbed Interferometer
| Palomar Testbed Interferometer | |
PTI on Palomar Mountain, next to the Hale Telescope
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| Organization | Caltech and JPL |
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| Location | Palomar Mountain |
| Coordinates | 33°21′26″N 116°51′51″W / 33.3571°N 116.8641°W |
| Wavelength | Near infrared |
| First light | 1995 |
| Telescope style | Interferometer |
| Diameter | 110 m |
| Secondary dia. | 0.4 m |
The Palomar Testbed Interferometer (PTI) was a near infrared, long-baseline stellar interferometer located at Palomar Observatory in north San Diego County. It was built by Caltech and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and was intended to serve as a testbed for developing interferometric techniques to be used at the Keck Interferometer. It began operations in 1995 and achieved routine operations in 1998, producing more than 50 refereed papers in a variety of scientific journals covering topics from high precision astrometry[1] to stellar masses,[2] stellar diameters and shapes.[3] PTI concluded operations in 2008 and has since been dismantled.[4]
PTI was notable for being equipped with a "dual-star" system, making it possible to simultaneously observe pairs of stars; this cancels some of the atmospheric effects of astronomical seeing and makes very high precision measurements possible.[citation needed]
A groundbreaking study with the Palomar Testbed Interferometer revealed that the star Altair is not spherical, but is rather flattened at the poles due to its high rate of rotation.[5]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ M. Shao et al. (1999). "Differential Astrometry of the 61 Cygni System with the Palomar Testbed Interferometer". Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society 31: 1504. Bibcode 1999AAS...195.8714S.
- ^ Boden, Andrew F.; Torres, Guillermo, Hummel, Christian A. (1 July 2005). "Testing Stellar Models with an Improved Physical Orbit for 12 Bootis". The Astrophysical Journal 627 (1): 464–476. doi:10.1086/430058.
- ^ van Belle, G. T.; Creech-Eakman, M. J., Hart, A. (21 April 2009). "Supergiant temperatures and linear radii from near-infrared interferometry". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 394 (4): 1925–1935. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2008.14146.x.
- ^ "Caltech Astronomy - The Palomar Testbed Interferometer (PTI)". Caltech Astronomy. http://www.astro.caltech.edu/palomar/pti.html. Retrieved 2012-01-09.
- ^ van Belle, Gerard T.; Ciardi, David R., Thompson, Robert R., Akeson, Rachel L., Lada, Elizabeth A. (1 October 2001). "Altair’s Oblateness and Rotation Velocity from Long‐Baseline Interferometry". The Astrophysical Journal 559 (2): 1155–1164. doi:10.1086/322340.
[edit] External links
- Palomar Testbed Interferometer (PTI) at NASA Exoplanet Science Institute.
- Palomar Testbed Interferometer (PTI) at Caltech Astronomy.
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