Free Astronomy Magazine May-June 2018

32 MAY-JUNE 2018 SPACE CHRONICLES testing this very complex instru- ment, initial observations have now confirmed that MATISSE is working as expected. The initial MATISSE observations of the red supergiant star Betelgeuse, which is expected to explode as a su- pernova in a few hundred thousand years, showed that it still has secrets to reveal. The new observations show evidence that the star appears to have a different size when seen at different wavelengths. Such data will allow astronomers to further study the huge star’s surroundings and how it is shedding material into space. The principal investigator of MATISSE, Bruno Lopez (Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur (OCA), Nice, France), explains its unique power: “Single telescopes can achieve image sharpness that is limited by the size of their mirrors. To obtain even higher resolution, we combine — or interfere — the light from four different VLT telescopes. Doing this enables MATISSE to deliver the sharpest images of any telescope ever in the 3–13 µ m wavelength range, where it will complement the James Webb Space Telescope’s future observa- tions from space.” MATISSE will con- tribute to several fundamental re- search areas in as- tronomy, focusing in particular on the inner regions of discs around young stars where planets are form- ing, the study of stars at different stages of their lives, and the sur- roundings of supermassive black holes at the centres of galaxies. MATISSE sees first light on ESO’s VLT interferometer by ESO M ATISSE (Multi AperTure mid- Infrared SpectroScopic Ex- periment) observes infrared light — light between the visible and microwave wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum, covering wavelengths from 3–13 micrometres (µm). It is a sec- ond-generation spectro-interfer- ometer instru- ment for ESO’s Very Large Tele- scope that can take advantage of multiple tele- scopes and the wave nature of the light. In this way, it produces more detailed im- ages of celestial objects than can be obtained with any existing or planned single telescope at these wavelengths. After 12 years of development by a large number of engineers and as- tronomers in France, Germany, Aus- tria, the Netherlands and at ESO, and following an extensive period of demanding work installing and T his picture shows the very complex MATISSE instru- ment during in- stallation. [ESO]