Author: letter2dwk

The 1st NASA Datanaut from LOFT, Maham Aftab

Congratulation, Maham Aftab, for being the first NASA Datanaut from LOFT group.

Maham_NASA

“While attending virtual events and coding tutorials at Datanauts, I have been developing a polynomial set and a corresponding data analysis method that allows optical wavefronts or surfaces to be reconstructed from their measured gradient data. This will be especially useful for freeform and high spatial resolution surfaces, such as telescope mirrors; as this method allows for thousands of polynomial terms to be generated and used, even with limited computing resources.” – Maham Aftab

 

Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything) Session by LOFT

Recently, there have been two exciting AMA (Ask Me Anything) sessions in Reddit Science section.

1. “Optics: A Revolution in Communications” by Alan Willner (President of The OSA, Optical Society) on 7/8

2. “Building the World’s Largest Telescope” by Patrick McCarthy (Interim President for the Giant Magellan Telescope) on 7/22

In order to continue the exciting “Optical” momentum in the public Reddit community, LOFT group is going to host another session at 6 – 8 pm EST (3-5 pm in Tucson) on 8/10 as below.

Science AMA Series: I’m Dr. Kim, and we are the Large Optics Fabrication and Testing (LOFT) Group at the College of Optical Sciences. We want to share our knowledge about the tools required to make and then test the world’s largest mirrors! AMA! We are excited to be here to share our expertise in the field of fabrication and testing of mirrors and other optical surfaces. Joining me (Dae Wook) in answering questions are my students Logan Graves and Isaac Trumper, who specialize in developing these types of measurement tools. We specialize in making very large telescopes of world renowned quality. We can do this only through understanding exactly how to make, and then test, the mirrored surfaces. You may have heard of one of our current projects, the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT), but we like to call it a giant camera! This telescope is designed to investigate events just after the Big Bang, such as how galaxies formed. It will do an amazing job at collecting light in order to view very faint objects in the sky. We also work on other exciting projects such as a giant microscope (DKIST), and a giant action-cam (LSST). Please take a look at our group’s website to get an idea of the other types of projects we work on: http://www.loft.optics.arizona.edu/projects/. To enable these amazing telescopes, we develop fabrication and testing methods such as using silly putty to polish, or a TV and camera to display fun patterns to measure nanometer sized surface defects. We even use really hot wires to generate infrared radiation, which enables a whole different type of surface testing. Want to learn how you can make your own mirrors? Interested in amateur astronomy? Want to understand how optics and light works more? Well then come on and ask us anything!

If you want to join the AMA session, please, visit the Reddit Science (https://www.reddit.com/r/science/) at 6 pm EST (on 8/10) or ahead of time to submit your AMA questions.

The Conversation Article Published

“To detect fainter and more distant objects in the cosmos, astronomers need bigger telescopes. And bigger telescopes – several of which are currently under construction around the world – rely on ever bigger mirrors to collect that incoming starlight. The University of Arizona’s Buddy Martin and Dae Wook Kim describe how they engineer these gargantuan mirrors with painstaking precision. Imperfections are not tolerated: if one of their 27-foot mirrors were scaled up to the size of North America, the tallest mountain would be one inch high and the deepest canyon would be one inch low.”

Maggie Villiger

Editor

The Conversation US

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