Adaptive Optics: A Sharper Image Leads the Way

(March 13, 2007) Dr. Claire Max of the University of California at Santa Cruz helped pioneer the field of adaptive optics, a technology that compensates for the blurring of images by Earth’s atmosphere. As director of the Center for Adaptive Optics, Dr. Max helps develop and apply adaptive optics technology to large, ground-based telescopes. In this talk, Dr. Max explains how recent advancements in adaptive optics have increased our knowledge about active black holes and our own Solar System, particularly the planet Neptune and Saturn’s moon, Titan.

Science Standards: Electromagnetic Radiation; Energy, its Transformation and Matter; Forces of the Universe.