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Checking Out Stars on World’s Largest Telescope

July 01, 2009 3:19 PM

ABC News On Campus reporter Andrea Alarcon blogs:

University of Florida astronomers are among the first to make observations of nearby galaxies using the newly completed Gran Telescopio Canarias, the world’s largest optical telescope, located in the Canary Islands off the coast of Spain.
 
The telescope, known as the GTC, has a unique 34.1-foot primary mirror, which allows it to see deep into the universe and examine distant objects in great detail, with way more finely detailed images than achievable with other telescopes. 

“The telescope has the most perfect mirror being used at the moment in this size,” said Stanley Dermott, UF chairman of the astronomy department. “We wanted to give our faculty and students the opportunity to have availability for top-class research.”

The team, headed by Eric Ford, assistant professor of astronomy, has begun analyzing the first data of HAT-P-3, a young star in the Ursa Major constellation. This star is rich in metals and is the hostess of a Jupiter-sized planet that passes in front of it every three days, according to the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias.

“The star is relatively young and the planet is unusually dense for such a planet,” Ford said. “By making more precise observations of this system and similar systems, we hope to learn more about how planets contract as they age.”

By studying the star light and measuring the amount that a planet blocks as it passes in front of the star, astronomers can learn about the physical properties of the planet, including its size, density, structure, atmospheric composition and climate.

“The more data you have, the more defined the light curb is… so we are bettering the error line,” said Knicole D. Colón, a UF Ph.D candidate and part of the astronomy research team led by Ford.

GTC cost approximately $180 million, with UF contributing $5 million. The Spanish government owns 90 percent; Mexico owning the remaining 5 percent. While U.S. universities contribute to telescopes around the world, Dermott noted that UF is the only American institution in partnership with the Spanish telescope.

UF astronomers say they will use the telescope to learn more about what occurred in the earliest years of the universe--how stars, planets and galaxies come into being--and to discover and learn more about planets outside our solar system.

While the Spanish have developed most of the GTC’s technology, UF has contributed two instruments. The most recent one, the CanariCam, will explore the origins and early evolution of planetary systems by the use of infrared light.

The GTC’s first, ceremonial observations occurred in 2007, before the telescope’s mirror was complete. A formal inauguration is planned for July 24 on the island of La Palma, where King Juan Carlos I and Queen Sofia of Spain will preside over the ceremony.

University of Florida’s astronomers have been visiting the telescope during its building process for the past nine years. After the formal inauguration next month, the astronomy department expects to have its students and faculty travelling to the Canary Islands on a regular basis.

“Florida has always had an interest in space; we have the biggest launching platform in Cape Canaveral, for example,” Dermott said. “UF has a top science and space program, and with this partnership, the university is at a technological front as well as a scientific one.”

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