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J. D. Monnier (University of Michigan), P. G. Tuthill, M. J. Ireland (University of Sydney), R. Cohen (W. M. Keck Observatory), A. Tannirkulam (University of Michigan)
Using the Keck-1 telescope, we have measured the sizes of Herbig Ae/Be disks in the thermal infrared, a wavelength range which probes the region of the circumstellar disk where gas giant planets are expected to form. Previous attempts to obtain precisely calibrated imaging data with Keck/LWS have been frustrated by unstable atmospheric seeing which affects the time-averaged PSF. To overcome this, we have carried-out a novel sparse-aperture interferometry experiment to enable robust mid-IR diffraction-limited imaging. Specifically, selected subsets of Keck-1 primary segments have been independently repointed using custom programming, yielding the well-established calibration advantages of sparse-aperture Fizeau interferometry. We present inital results and compare to recent results from nulling interferometry.
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 36 5
© 2004. The American Astronomical Society.