Related papers: Mirrors for space telescopes: degradation issues
Grazing incidence mirrors for X-ray astronomy are usually designed in the parabola-hyperbola (Wolter I) configuration. This design allows for optimal images on-axis, which however degrade rapidly with the off-axis angle. Mirror surfaces…
We describe a new technology for the fabrication of inexpensive high-quality mirrors. We begin by chemically producing a large number of metallic nanoparticles coated with organic ligands. The particles are then spread on a liquid substrate…
Assessing the impact of astronomical facilities rests upon an evaluation of the scientific discoveries which their data have enabled. Telescope bibliographies, which link data products with the literature, provide a way to use bibliometrics…
Telescope and detector developments continuously enable deeper and more detailed studies of astronomical objects. Larger collecting areas, improvement in dispersion and detector techniques, and higher sensitivities allow detection of more…
In astronomy and microscopy, distortions in the wavefront affect the dynamic range of a high contrast imaging system. These aberrations are either imposed by a turbulent medium such as the atmosphere, by static or thermal aberrations in the…
We briefly review the concept of a parallel `mirror' world which has the same particle physics as the observable world and couples to the latter by gravity and perhaps other very weak forces. The nucleosynthesis bounds demand that the…
Space weathering is an important surface process occurring on the Moon and other airless bodies, especially those that have no magnetic field. The optical effects of the Moon's space weathering have been largely investigated in the…
Small satellite platforms with high performance avionics are becoming more affordable. So far, with a few exceptions, small satellites have been mainly dedicated to earth observation. However, astronomy is a fascinating field with a history…
In order to avoid collisions with space debris, the near Earth orbit must be continuously scanned by either ground- or spaced-based facilities. For the low Earth orbit, radar telescopes are the workhorse for this task, especially due to…
Metasurfaces provide a compact, flexible, and reliable solution for controlling the wavefront of light. In imaging systems, micro-lens arrays are integrated with pixel matrices to reduce optical crosstalk, enhance photon collection…
Thermodynamical fluctuations of temperature in mirrors may produce surface fluctuations not only through thermal expansion in mirror body but also through thermal expansion in mirror coating. We analyze the last "surface" effect which can…
Precision wavefront control on future segmented-aperture space telescopes presents significant challenges, particularly in the context of high-contrast exoplanet direct imaging. We present a new wavefront control architecture that…
Optomechanical systems are suitable for elucidating quantum phenomena at the macroscopic scale in the sense of the mass scale. The systems should be well-isolated from the environment to avoid classical noises, which conceal quantum…
Mirror matter is predicted to exist if parity is an unbroken symmetry of nature. Currently, there is a large amount of evidence that mirror matter actually exists coming from astrophysics and particle physics. One of the most fascinating…
We study the vacuum-induced degradation of high-finesse optical cavities with mirror coatings composed of SiO$_2$-Ta$_{2}$O$_{5}$ dielectric stacks, and present methods to protect these coatings and to recover their initial quality factor.…
We briefly review the concept of a parallel `mirror' world which has the same particle physics as the observable world and couples to the latter by gravity and perhaps other very weak forces. The nucleosynthesis bounds demand that the…
Galactic cosmic rays and solar energetic particles (SEPs) affect the performance of instruments carried on board space missions and are the source of the absorbed dose to astronauts. Particles above 100 MeV are the most penetrating. The…
We have developed a method to measure the mirror reflectivity of telescopes. While it is relatively easy to measure the local reflectivity of the mirror material, it is not so straightforward to measure the amount of light that it focuses…
We present bounds on mirror dark matter scenario derived by using the effect of mirror matter on the luminosity of the Sun. In the perturbative regime where the mirror matter concentration is small relative to the ordinary matter we…
Optical Doppler shift demonstration experiments are not a simple task since the light source cannot usually be moved in a sufficiently smooth and uniform manner to keep the level of noise well below of that of the signal. For that reason…