Habitable Exoplanets to Be Studied with Help of AI and Photonics

Researchers from the University of Sydney developed a sensor capable of correcting the distortion of starlight caused by heat variations in Earth’s atmosphere. The sensor would allow ground-based telescopes to study habitable exoplanets. The technology builds on a method to measure and correct the wavefront of light as it passes through atmospheric turbulence directly at the focal plane of an imaging instrument. This is done using a photonic lantern, to convert light, that is linked to a neural network inference process. The researchers called the device a photonic wavefront sensor, which can be placed directly in the optical instrument where the image forms. In the photonics lab at the Sydney Nanoscience Hub, University of...