Astro-image of the day (bonus): the surface of Altair!

[mckitterick]

You know how stars always show up as little points of light, even in the biggest telescopes? Well, check out this image:

Click the image to see the story.

Doesn't seem like much, eh? Until you realize that what you're looking at is an actual image of the surface of a star! This is the first time ever that astronomers have taken a photo of a star's surface. Holy magnificent magnification, Batman! They used a process called optical interferometry; read the science article .pdf if you want to know how they did it.

Click here for the science article and animations and more images. (The movie explains why it's squashed like that; think Mesklin.)

Wow!

Best,
Chris

Comments

[queenoftheskies.livejournal.com]

I saw that last night. I think maybe someone had linked to the story on their LJ or something.

Isn't it amazing???

I was surprised to discover how fast the star moves and that the movement is the cause of its oval shape.

Also neat how they captured the image using multiple cameras. Didn't they say that the entire set-up was bigger than multiple football fields???

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

Yup, big:

It's very cool, and the technology only works due to advances in computer science.

[the-monkey-king.livejournal.com]

Wow! Thanks for pointing this out. I am boggled.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_starlady_/]

Saw it here first. Thanks. I have to teach this stuff in a couple of weeks and I love updating my PowerPoint with fresh new images. (This page is so inaccurate--hasn't been updated in years.)