Related papers: GRAVITY+ adaptive optics (GPAO) tests in Europe
We describe results from the first astronomical adaptive optics system to use multiple laser guide stars, located at the 6.5-m MMT telescope in Arizona. Its initial operational mode, ground-layer adaptive optics (GLAO), provides uniform…
Since 2019, GRAVITY has provided direct observations of giant planets and brown dwarfs at separations of down to 95 mas from the host star. Some of these observations have provided the first direct confirmation of companions previously…
Direct imaging of exoplanets allows us to measure positions and chemical signatures of exoplanets. Given the limited resources for space observations where the atmosphere is absent, we want to make these measurements from the ground.…
We report on high angular resolution near-infrared (NIR) observations of three galaxy clusters at different redshifts using adaptive optics (AO). In the case of the barred spiral \object{UGC 1347} in Abell 262 we presented the first AO…
Ground-based adaptive optics (AO) in the infrared has made exceptional advances in approaching space-like image quality at higher collecting area. Optical-wavelength applications are now also growing in scope. We therefore provide here a…
The EAGLE instrument is a Multi-Object Adaptive Optics (MOAO) fed, multiple Integral Field Spectrograph (IFS), working in the Near Infra-Red (NIR), on the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT). A Phase A design study was delivered to…
In the recent Astro2020 Decadal Report, ''Pathways to Discovery in Astronomy and Astrophysics for the 2020s'' Adaptive Optics (AO) was identified as a crucial technology for a variety of reasons. These included an emphasis on high-contrast…
SPHERE, operating at the VLT since 2014, is currently one of the high-contrast instruments with a higher performance. Its adaptive optics system, known as SAXO, will be upgraded to SAXO+, which features the addition of a second stage of…
We review astronomical results in the visible (lambda <1 micron) with adaptive optics and note the status the MagAO system and the recent upgrade to visible camera's Simultaneous/Spectra Differential Imager (SDI to SDI+) mode. Since…
Adaptive optics normally concerns the feedback correction of phase aberrations. Such correction has been of benefit in various optical systems, with applications ranging in scale from astronomical telescopes to super-resolution microscopes.…
The major cornerstone of future ground-based astronomy is imaging and spectroscopy at the diffraction limit using adaptive optics. To exploit the potential of current AO systems, we have begun a survey around bright stars to study…
We are building a next-generation laser adaptive optics system, Robo-AO-2, for the UH 2.2-m telescope that will deliver robotic, diffraction-limited observations at visible and near-infrared wavelengths in unprecedented numbers. The…
Future large space telescopes will be equipped with adaptive optics (AO) to overcome wavefront aberrations and achieve high contrast for imaging faint astronomical objects, such as earth-like exoplanets and debris disks. In contrast to AO…
GRAVITY+ is the upgrade of GRAVITY and the Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) with wide-separation fringe tracking, new adaptive optics, and laser guide stars on all four 8~m Unit Telescopes (UTs), for ever fainter, all-sky, high…
Adaptive optics laser guide star systems perform atmospheric correction of stellar wavefronts in two parts: stellar tip-tilt and high-spatial-order laser-correction. The requirement of a sufficiently bright guide star in the field-of-view…
The Gemini Planet Imager (GPI) entered on-sky commissioning and had its first-light at the Gemini South (GS) telescope in November 2013. GPI is an extreme adaptive optics (XAO), high-contrast imager and integral-field spectrograph dedicated…
On April 1st, 2019, the Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (aLIGO), joined by the Advanced Virgo detector, began the third observing run, a year-long dedicated search for gravitational radiation. The LIGO detectors…
The GRAVITY instrument on the ESO VLTI pioneers the field of high-precision near-infrared interferometry by providing astrometry at the $10 - 100\,\mu$as level. Measurements at such high precision crucially depend on the control of…
Multi-conjugated adaptive optics (MCAO) yield nearly diffraction-limited images at 2$\mu$m wavelengths. Currently, GeMS/GSAOI at Gemini South is the only MCAO facility instrument at an 8m telescope. Using real data and for the first time,…
With the advent of GRAVITY+, the upgrade to the beam combiner GRAVITY at the Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI), fainter and higher redshift active galactic nuclei (AGNs) are becoming observable, opening an unprecedented opportunity…