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Cavendish Astrophysics

 

Our pioneering work in optical interferometry has led to our group being partners in the development and construction of a major new instrument, the Magdalena Ridge Optical Interferometer (MROI) being constructed in New Mexico.

Schematic of MROI showing ten telescopes in a close-packed configuration. The shortest baseline in this configuration is 7.5m. Light collected by the telescopes is transported in evacuated beam relay pipes to the Beam Combining Facility building, where the paths travelled by the light from different telescopes are equalised by the delay lines (in the pipes shown top right), before the light beams are interfered on optical tables in the Beam Combining Area.