Optics and Photonics News

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High-Contrast Imaging Confirms Extrasolar Planet in Quadruple Star System

Justin Crepp, Freimann Assistant Professor of physics at the University of Notre Dame, provided the high-contrast imaging observations that confirmed the first extrasolar planet discovered in a quadruple star system. He is a co-author on a paper about the discovery, “Planet Hunters: A Transiting Circumbinary Planet in a Quadruple Star System,” recently posted to the open-access arXiv.org, and submitted for publication to The Astrophysical Journal.

30 Oct 2012

Photonex Reports a Successful LIGHT Technologies Show

Organisers, Xmark Media reports on the success of this year’s event and announces the dates for 2013.

30 Oct 2012

$Optical Thin-Film Materials with Low Refractive Index$

Optical Thin-Film Materials with Low Refractive Index

Photovoltaic cell efficiency may soon get a big boost, thanks to next-generation antireflection coatings crafted from nanomaterials capable of cutting down on the amount of light reflected away from a cell's surface.

29 Oct 2012

Telescopes Track Saturn's Great Springtime Storm

The heat-seeking capabilities of the international Cassini spacecraft and two ground-based telescopes have provided the first look at the aftermath of Saturn's 'Great Springtime Storm'. Concealed from the naked eye, a giant oval vortex is persisting long after the visible effects of the storm subsided.

26 Oct 2012

Electron Beams in Table-Top Accelerators Power Free Electron Lasers

Wim Leemans of Berkeley Lab's Accelerator and Fusion Research Division heads LOASIS, the Laser and Optical Accelerator Systems Integrated Studies, an oasis indeed for students pursuing graduate studies in laser plasma acceleration (LPA). Among the most promising applications of future table-top accelerators are new kinds of light sources, in which their electron beams power free electron lasers.

26 Oct 2012

Composite Infrared Spectrometer Reveals Aftermath of Massive Storm on Saturn

NASA's Cassini spacecraft has tracked the aftermath of a rare massive storm on Saturn. Data reveal record-setting disturbances in the planet's upper atmosphere long after the visible signs of the storm abated, in addition to an indication the storm was more forceful than scientists previously thought.

26 Oct 2012

Raytheon Demonstrates Enhanced Capabilities of its Common Sensor Payload System

Raytheon Company has successfully demonstrated the enhanced capabilities of its new CSP HD turret, a high definition electro-optical and infrared version of its Common Sensor Payload (CSP). The initial CSP HD system flight test occurred on a U.S. Army Gray Eagle UAS (unmanned aircraft system) platform in September.

25 Oct 2012

NASA's NuSTAR Telescope Captures Outburst from Black Hole

NASA's newest set of X-ray eyes in the sky, the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR), has caught its first look at the giant black hole parked at the center of our galaxy. The observations show the typically mild-mannered black hole during the middle of a flare-up.

25 Oct 2012

Astronomy + Astrophysics Publishes First Analysis of Multi-Color Photometric Catalog of Stars in Milky Way Bulge

Astronomy & Astrophysics published the first analysis of a catalog of 84 million individual stars in the Milky Way bulge as a part of the VVV ESO public survey. This gigantic data set allows building the largest, deepest, and most accurate color-magnitude diagram ever produced, containing more than ten times more stars than any previous study.

25 Oct 2012

New Study Suggests Orphaned Stars Produce Infrared Light from Galaxy Halos

Could it be that dark matter "halos" — the huge, invisible cocoons of mass that envelop entire galaxies and account for most of the matter in the universe — aren't completely dark after all but contain a small number of stars? Astronomers from UCLA, UC Irvine and elsewhere make a case for that in the Oct. 25 issue of the journal Nature.

25 Oct 2012