New Star in the Sky

Perhaps the most remarkable astrophotography event of 2002 was announced in January, and it was all a bit of a fake.

Keck Laser light creates a virtual star. Full Story

Astronomers at the Keck Observatory in Hawaii put a new faux "star" in the sky, so that they could do some real and serious observing. They did it with a laser, and they did it so they could calibrate their new adaptive optics system, which they claim gives the giant telescope better resolution than the Hubble Space Telescope in the infrared spectrum.

Hubble is above the atmosphere, but Keck is way bigger. Adaptive optics uses the light from the fake star to adjust for the atmosphere’s jiggles, and a bunch of adjustable mirror segments are reset on the fly to sharpen the image of the guide star – which has known properties – as well as the science target. Astronomers said the momentous event would precede high-resolution photographs of objects that were otherwise too dim to discern.

And in early December, Keck in fact generated the most detailed pictures ever of Saturn's moon Titan, revealing clouds that even a Voyager spacecraft flyby couldn't see.

Next Page: The Real Odyssey