University of California, Davis

Physics Department

Cosmology Seminar

Dr. Rachel Akeson

Caltech

"First Science Results with the Keck Interferometer"

 

The Keck Interferometer began science observations in June 2002 using the 10-meter Keck telescopes in visibility amplitude mode. Since then, a wide range of astronomical objects have been observed, from T Tauri stars to the center of a Seyfert galaxy. I will discuss some of the scientific results, highlighting topics new to the era of large aperture interferometry. For example, observations of the Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 4151, the first extra-galactic object detected with infrared interferometry, revealed that the majority of the near-infrared emission from the center of the galaxy arises from a region less than 0.1 in diameter.

 

Thursday, April 29, 2004

12:10 p.m., 416 PHY/GEO