New frontiers in optical long-baseline interferometry with VLTI/GRAVITY — Pierre Kervella (Paris Observatory / U Chile)

Until the advent of the large aperture VLTI and Keck Interferometer arrays in the early 2000s, long-baseline optical interferometry had almost exclusively been applied to stellar physics. Over the last decade, the range of astrophysical topics that take advantage of optical interferometry has dramatically broadened. At the focus of the 4-telescope VLTI array, the GRAVITY beam combiner has enabled milliarcsecond spectro-imaging of much fainter objects than before, as well as narrow-angle astrometry at an accuracy of a few tens of microarcsecond. I will present a selection of recent astrophysical results from GRAVITY focusing in particular on exoplanets and active galactic nuclei. I will conclude with a perspective on future developments of optical interferometry.

Horarios: September 23, 2025 15:30

Publicado por: Gijs Mulders