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arXiv · 2410.22063

Kilometer-baseline interferometry: science drivers for the next generation instrument

G. Bourdarot·F. Eisenhauer
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Abstract

Infrared interferometry has seen a revolution over the last few years. The advent of GRAVITY+ is about to enable high-contrast observations, all-sky coverage and faint science up to K=21, with the implementation on 8m-class telescope of extreme adaptive optics, wide-field observations, and soon laser guide stars, following a long-term vision of technological and infrastructure development at VLTI. This major progress in sensitivity lift a fundamental limitation of infrared interferometry, namely the brightness temperature achievable with this technique down to milli-arcsecond resolution imaging. This change of paradigm is a crucial element for the expansion of current arrays to a facility up to one to ten kilometer baselines. Micro-arcsecond scales imaging in the infrared on thermal objects, reaching the highest angular resolution possible even compared to VLBI, could offer a unique window in observational astronomy for the next generation instrument.

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G. Bourdarot, F. Eisenhauer. 2024-10-29. Kilometer-baseline interferometry: science drivers for the next generation instrument. https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.22063

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