U.S. scientists have outfitted the giant, twin Keck telescopes in Hawaii with a new laser guidance system they said could revolutionize astronomy. The Laser Guide Star Adaptive Optics system, as it is called, is the only one of its kind on a very large telescope. It allows a technology called adaptive optics to make precise atmospheric corrections to sharpen an observing target. Before the laser system was devised, Keck astronomers had to rely on the availability of a relatively bright, naturally-occurring star to measure and correct for atmospheric distortions. Such relatively bright stars are available in only about 1 percent of the sky, however. The new laser system removes this limitation and gives almost full access to the sky for study with adaptive optics, astronomers said. "Telescopes in space and on the ground have analyzed the light from galaxies for years, but now we can actually see the structure and stellar population inside those galaxies," said Dr. David Le Mignant, instrument scientist for the adaptive optics system at the W. M. Keck Observatory. "It is as if the Keck telescope were in space!" © Copyright 2004 by United Press International

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