Liquid mirror space telescope

Liquid mirror space telescope

A liquid mirror space telescope is a concept for a type of reflecting space telescope which uses a reflecting liquid such as mercury as its primary reflector.[1]

There are several designs for such a telescope:

1. Twirled Pail: A pair of objects, one the mirror assembly and the other a counterweight possibly containing a camera assembly, are spun up to induce centripetal acceleration on the surface of the mirror assembly.

2. Half Toroid: A hollow torus (a doughnut or spare-tire shaped object) is spun up to maintain centripetal acceleration against the inside wall. The camera assembly sits in the center. The torus width is arbitrarily large. Optional other pieces include a large flat mirror in the center to allow randomly orienting the mirror without frequently changing the axis of spin.

3. Balloon: A balloon with a reflective liquid on the inside is spun up and it deforms itself into a parabolic shape. A flat mirror on the inside reflects light to the concave surface.

Regardless of the specific configuration, such a telescope would be similar to an earth-based liquid mirror telescope. However, instead of relying on Earth's gravity to maintain the necessary parabolic shape of the rotating mercury mirror, it relies on artificial gravity instead.

Other possibilities for inducing a parabolic shape in the reflecting liquid include:

  • magnetic fields on a viscous and partially magnetic liquid;
  • internal pressures or surface tension effects on a reflective liquid;
  • creating the telescope while the reflective surface is liquid but depending on cooling effects to solidify the surface and then using that as the telescope main mirror.

The concept is seen as an enabler of very large optical space telescopes, as a liquid mirror would be much lighter to deploy and cheaper to construct than a conventional glass mirror of comparable performance.

References

  1. ^ Paul Hickson (2007), "Liquid-Mirror Telescopes", American Scientist 95: 216–223 

External links


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем решить контрольную работу

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Liquid mirror — Liquid mirrors are mirrors made with reflective liquids. The most common liquid used is mercury, but other liquids will work as well (for example, low melting alloys of gallium). Liquid mirrors can be a low cost alternative to conventional large… …   Wikipedia

  • Spitzer Space Telescope — The Spitzer Space Telescope prior to launch General information NSSDC ID 2003 038A …   Wikipedia

  • Spitzer Space Telescope — ▪ United States satellite  U.S. satellite, the fourth and last of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration fleet of “Great Observatories” satellites, designed to study the Cosmos at infrared (infrared radiation) wavelengths. In operation …   Universalium

  • Space debris — populations seen from outside geosynchronous orbit (GEO). Note the two primary debris fields, the ring of objects in GEO, and the cloud of objects in low earth orbit (LEO) …   Wikipedia

  • space exploration — Investigation of the universe beyond Earth s atmosphere by means of manned and unmanned spacecraft. Study of the use of rockets for spaceflight began early in the 20th century. Germany s research on rocket propulsion in the 1930s led to… …   Universalium

  • Mirror — looking glass redirects here. For other uses, see Looking Glass (disambiguation). This article is about wave reflectors (mainly, specular reflection of visible light). For other uses, see Mirror (disambiguation). A mirror, reflecting a vase A… …   Wikipedia

  • Marshall Space Flight Center — George C. Marshall Space Flight Center Aerial view of the test area at MSFC …   Wikipedia

  • Reflecting telescope — 24 inch convertible Newtonian/Cassegrain reflecting telescope on display at the Franklin Institute. A reflecting telescope (also called a reflector) is an optical telescope which uses a single or combination of curved mirrors that reflect light… …   Wikipedia

  • Very Large Telescope — VLT redirects here. For other uses, see VLT (disambiguation). Very Large Telescope The four Unit Telescopes that form the VLT together with th …   Wikipedia

  • Herschel Space Observatory — Infobox Space telescope name = Herschel Space Observatory ( Herschel ) caption = Artist s impression of the Herschel Space Observatory organization = ESA alt names = Far Infrared and Submillimetre Telescope (FIRST) nssdc id = location = orbit… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”