A powerful add-on to one of the largest Earth-based telescopes in the world, the Large Binocular Telescope Interferometer (LBTI) will help set the stage for NASA's search for Earthlike planets.

The LBTI is a special instrument that will be attached to the Large Binocular Telescope, "the LBT," located on Mount Graham in the Arizona desert. This gigantic telescope is called a "binocular" telescope because it features two separate 8.4 meter mirrors. Light from these two mirrors can be combined to create a resolving power equivalent to that of a 22.8 meter telescope. A special system of adaptive optics will compensate for the fluctuations of the Earth's atmosphere, allowing for even sharper pictures.

A first-light ceremony for the Large Binocular Telescope was conducted, using only one mirror, in late 2005. Researchers hope to get both mirrors online later this year.

The LBTI will be used by NASA as a testbed for the technology of nulling interferometry, which may help yield the first direct images of planets orbiting other stars.

The instrument will work by refocusing the beam of light from each telescope and combining them so that the light waves coming from a particular star are cancelled out. This "nulling effect" may then allow astronomers to detect the very faint light of a distant planet. It's an effect akin to lowering your sun visor as you drive so that you can clearly see the road.

Once the LBTI is online, researchers hope to use it to observe disks of dust around nearby stars that could indicate the early stages of planet formation, as well as large, Jupiter-size planets. The LBTI will also be used to identify stars that are good candidates for having Earth-like planets.

The LBTI is funded in part through NASA's Navigator Program. The Michelson Science Center at Caltech will help manage the research operations and data processing for the LBTI when it comes online.

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