The Keck Interferometer is part of NASA's overall effort to find planets and ultimately life beyond our solar system. It will combine the light from the twin Keck telescopes to measure the emission from dust orbiting nearby stars.
The Keck Interferometer is a ground-based component of NASA's Origins Program. Origins addresses fundamental questions about the formation of galaxies, stars, and planetary systems, the prevalence of planetary systems around other stars, and the formation of life on Earth.
At 4,150 meters (13,600 feet) above the Pacific Ocean, atop the dormant volcano Mauna Kea on the "Big Island" of Hawaii, the twin Keck Telescopes are the world's largest telescopes for optical and near-infrared astronomy. The Keck Interferometer joins these giant telescopes to form a powerful astronomical instrument.
History
The search for planets beyond the solar system has been advocated by a variety of NASA and National Academy of Science advisory committees, extending back over almost a decade to reports from the TOPS (Toward Other Planetary Systems) and COMPLEX (Committee on Planetary Exploration) committees. The basic concept for the Keck Interferometer was described in the TOPS report and restated in A Road Map for the Exploration of Neighboring Planetary Systems ("The ExNPS Report", 1996) which represented the consensus view of more than 100 scientists, engineers, and technologists. The ExNPS study was forwarded to the NASA Administrator after review by a blue ribbon panel chaired by Professor Charles Townes, a Nobel Prize winning physicist.
The TOPS and ExNPS reports recognized the unique potential of interferometry for the problem of planet detection. They recommended NASA's involvement in the second Keck Telescope and proposed the eventual use of these two telescopes, plus four outrigger telescopes, as an interferometer array. The TOPS report specifically identified the detection of "Hot Jupiters" using the differential phase technique. A few years later, the ExNPS report identified the need to measure the brightness of the clouds of zodiacal dust around other stars. Since this emission can, in extreme cases, mask the signal of individual planets, its characterization is important to the design of NASA's Terrestrial Planet Finder (TPF) space mission.
Both the TOPS and ExNPS reports noted the capability of ground-based interferometry to detect Uranus-size planets indirectly through the astrometric signature of their parent stars.
In 1996, in response to the recommendations of these and other advisory committees, a NASA-Keck Review Team (NKRT) recommended that, as part of its Origins program, NASA embark on a program to implement the Keck Interferometer project. NASA selected JPL to implement the interferometer jointly with the California Association for Research in Astronomy (CARA). The observatory is operated by CARA, whose Board of Directors includes representatives from Caltech and the University of California. In 1996, NASA joined as a partner in the Observatory.
