Seldom Bucket
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Researchers at the Australian National University (ANU) are finding new uses for the laser-based technology that sharpens telescope imagery – called adaptive optics – and it just might help mitigate the world’s growing space debris problem. Purpose-built lasers could give derelict satellites a slight ‘push’ of photons, imparting just enough energy to change the debris’s orbit and prevent an impending collision.
Lasers have a long history in astronomy. Telescopes in space, like Hubble, are able to take spectacular images because they don’t have to deal with atmospheric distortion (the effect that causes stars to appear to ‘twinkle’ in the night sky). But space telescopes can only be so big, so ground-based observatories can offer a lot more seeing power, with a little help from adaptive optics.
Ground-Based Lasers Could Push Space Debris off Collision-Course Orbits - Universe Today
Researchers at the Australian National University (ANU) are finding new uses for the laser-based technology that sharpens telescope imagery – called adaptive optics – and it just might help mitigate the world’s growing space debris problem. Purpose-built lasers could give derelict satellites a...
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