VIDEO: UH engineers help sharpen our view of space

Contact:

Link to video (details below): https://go.hawaii.edu/mKS

A groundbreaking new instrument that lets astronomers see deeper into space than ever before using a single telescope was brought to life with help from a University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa faculty member. Installed on the Subaru Telescope atop Maunakea, the first-of-its-kind device set a new benchmark for how scientists study distant stars and planets.

The instrument, called a photonic lantern, separates starlight into multiple channels, like breaking a musical chord into individual notes, allowing computers to rebuild an ultra-clear image. It's part of a new instrument called FIRST-PL, developed and led by UH and the Paris Observatory, and installed on the advanced optics platform SCExAO (Subaru Coronagraphic Extreme Adaptive Optics) at Subaru Telescope.

"What excites me most is that this instrument blends cutting-edge photonics with the precision engineering done here in Hawaiʻi," said Sébastien Vievard, a faculty member from the UH Space Science and Engineering Initiative (SSEI) a joint program of the UH Mānoa College of Engineering and Institute for Astronomy. "It shows how collaboration across the world, and across disciplines, can literally change the way we see the cosmos."

Sharper cosmic views

The breakthrough, published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, used the new setup to study a nearby star called beta Canis Minoris and revealed that its fast-spinning gas disk is unexpectedly lopsided, a detail never seen until now.

"This device splits the starlight according to its patterns of fluctuation, keeping subtle details that are otherwise lost. By reassembling the measurements of the outputs, we could reconstruct a very high-resolution image of a disk around a nearby star," said Yoo Jung Kim, a graduate student at UCLA, and lead author on the study.

The international team included researchers from UH, UCLA, the Paris Observatory, the University of Sydney and Subaru Telescope.

Hawaiʻi's space future

The achievement marks a milestone for UH's new Space Science and Engineering Initiative, which launched its first engineering courses at UH Hilo in fall 2024. The initiative aims to position Hawaiʻi as a global hub for space research, technology development, and workforce training. Vievard, one of the program's founding faculty members, is helping to lead this new academic path that blends classroom learning with hands-on engineering experience.

Link to video (details below): https://go.hawaii.edu/mKS

B-ROLL: (47 seconds)

0:00-0:06 - UH engineer with new instrument on Maunakea

0:06-0:12 - Close up of lantern

0:12-0:18 - Image captured of nearby star, beta Canis Minoris

0:18-0:24 - Subaru Telescope

0:24-0:47 - File video of planets (credit: NASA)