Week 2: WS4 #2

2. CCAT is a 25-meter telescope that will detect light with wavelengths up to 850 microns. How does the angular resolution of this huge telescope compare to the angular resolution of the much smaller MMT 6.5-meter telescope observing in the infrared J-band? 

We determined in a previous problem that the resolution \(\theta\) is equal to \(\frac{\lambda}{D}\), where \(\lambda\) is the wavelength of the light observed and D is the diameter of the telescope. If we say the J-band is 1.2 microns, we can simply calculate and compare the resolutions.
\(\theta_{CCAT}=\frac{850\times10^{-6}m}{25m}=3.4\times10^{-5}\)
\(\theta_{MMT}=\frac{1.2\times10^{-6}m}{6.5m}=1.8\times10^{-7}\)
Since smaller resolution is better, we know that MMT has the better resolution.


Corrected 2/14/16


Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J_band