Enhanced Mirror Coatings Will Enable Future NASA Observatory

Tuesday, June 30, 2020 - 09:00 in Astronomy & Space

PROJECT Broadband Mirror Coatings for Future NASA Observatory SNAPSHOT A team at GSFC is investigating techniques for creating highly reflective aluminum mirrors sensitive to the far-ultraviolet in addition to the infrared, optical, and visible wavelengths. Left: Engineers in the GSFC coating lab. Left to right: Javier del Hoyo (GSFC), Emily Witt (U. of CO), and Nicholas Nell (U. of CO). Right: A coated primary mirror after it was taken from the chamber on the left. This mirror will be used on the Suborbital Imaging Spectrograph for Transition region Irradiance from Nearby Exoplanet (SISTINE) payload—a sounding rocket mission that will advance the Technology Readiness Level of these new mirror coatings (PI: Kevin France U. of CO) The more reflective a telescope mirror is at far-ultraviolet (FUV) wavelengths, the better the images it can collect. Scientists and engineers at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) are able to produce telescope mirror coatings with the highest reflectance ever...

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