Question

5. The secondary mirror in a telescope with adaptive optics can be adjusted...
● About once a minute
● Only once
● About once a second
● Dozens of times a second​

Answer 1

Explanation:

Adaptive optics (AO) is a technology used to improve the performance of optical systems by reducing the effect of incoming wavefront distortions by deforming a mirror in order to compensate for the distortion. It is used in astronomical telescopes[1] and laser communication systems to remove the effects of atmospheric distortion, in microscopy,[2] optical fabrication[3] and in retinal imaging systems[4] to reduce optical aberrations. Adaptive optics works by measuring the distortions in a wavefront and compensating for them with a device that corrects those errors such as a deformable mirror or a .

An artist'sA deformable mirror can be used to correct wavefront errors in an astronomical telescope.

An artist'sA deformable mirror can be used to correct wavefront errors in an astronomical telescope.Illustration of a (simplified) adaptive optics system. The light first hits a tip–tilt (TT) mirror and then a deformable mirror (DM) which corrects the wavefront. Part of the light is tapped off by a beamsplitter (BS) to the wavefront sensor and the control hardware which sends updated signals to the DM and TT mirrors.

An artist'sA deformable mirror can be used to correct wavefront errors in an astronomical telescope.Illustration of a (simplified) adaptive optics system. The light first hits a tip–tilt (TT) mirror and then a deformable mirror (DM) which corrects the wavefront. Part of the light is tapped off by a beamsplitter (BS) to the wavefront sensor and the control hardware which sends updated signals to the DM and TT mirrors.File: impression of adaptive optics.

An artist'sA deformable mirror can be used to correct wavefront errors in an astronomical telescope.Illustration of a (simplified) adaptive optics system. The light first hits a tip–tilt (TT) mirror and then a deformable mirror (DM) which corrects the wavefront. Part of the light is tapped off by a beamsplitter (BS) to the wavefront sensor and the control hardware which sends updated signals to the DM and TT mirrors.File: impression of adaptive optics.The wavefront of an aberrated image (left) can be measured using a wavefront sensor (center) and then corrected for using a deformable mirror (right)

An artist'sA deformable mirror can be used to correct wavefront errors in an astronomical telescope.Illustration of a (simplified) adaptive optics system. The light first hits a tip–tilt (TT) mirror and then a deformable mirror (DM) which corrects the wavefront. Part of the light is tapped off by a beamsplitter (BS) to the wavefront sensor and the control hardware which sends updated signals to the DM and TT mirrors.File: impression of adaptive optics.The wavefront of an aberrated image (left) can be measured using a wavefront sensor (center) and then corrected for using a deformable mirror (right)Adaptive optics should not be confused with active optics, which works on a longer timescale to correct the primary mirror geometry.

An artist'sA deformable mirror can be used to correct wavefront errors in an astronomical telescope.Illustration of a (simplified) adaptive optics system. The light first hits a tip–tilt (TT) mirror and then a deformable mirror (DM) which corrects the wavefront. Part of the light is tapped off by a beamsplitter (BS) to the wavefront sensor and the control hardware which sends updated signals to the DM and TT mirrors.File: impression of adaptive optics.The wavefront of an aberrated image (left) can be measured using a wavefront sensor (center) and then corrected for using a deformable mirror (right)Adaptive optics should not be confused with active optics, which works on a longer timescale to correct the primary mirror geometry.Other methods can achieve resolving power exceeding the limit imposed by atmospheric distortion, such as speckle imaging, aperture synthesis, and lucky imaging, or by moving outside the atmosphere with space telescopes, such as the Hubble Space Telescope.