ASTRON 1F03 Study Guide - Final Guide: Andromeda Galaxy, Diffraction-Limited System, Adaptive Optics

• School: McMaster University
• Department: Astronomy
• Course: ASTRON 1F03
• Professor: James Wadsley

Document Summary

Resolution is better for larger mirrors and shorter wavelength light( suffers less. Which telescope is best for science to see clouds of gas and dust for the formation of planets (cold) Which for supernovae and other rapid energetic events? (hot) Larger telescopes collect more light, and faint details become visible. The sharpness of the image is limited by the wave nature of light. Light waves diffract which makes image fuzzy from direction;size of apature that the light goes through) Heat shimmer or mirage (air behaves ight glass and bends it but it isn"t consistent, cant to better than 1 arc second even with big mirror) Space has no diffraction from atmosphere which is why hubble is in space. Resolution is 20 times better than earth telescope. Hubble doesn"t have to deal with ground problems. Earth keeps spinning and angular momentum is the trick.