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Aperture synthesis, aka interferometry, has been applied to optical systems for far more than 15 years. The Narrabri Stellar Intensity Interferometer[1] saw fir

Aperture synthesis, aka interferometry, has been applied to optical systems for far more than 15 years. The Narrabri Stellar Intensity Interferometer[1] saw first light in 1963, for example. However, your resolving power is still fundamentally limited by the distance between your telescopes. The diffraction limit may be more of a fuzzy limit than a hard cut off, but it is fundamental physics. Optical interferometry is hard, and you don't get a image in the way that most people would think of it. To build up a detailed image with aperture synthesis requires measurements over a very large number of baselines. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narrabri_Stellar_Intensity_Interferometer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narrabri_Stellar_Intensity_Int...

balnaphone 6y ago
Yes, agreed. In fact, the first example I can think of is the Michelson stellar interferometer at the Mount Wilson Observatory, which was in operation in 1920. However, there has been a major push recently to circumvent the limitations of optically connecting the telescope arrays; there are a few different approaches, of which I'm not aware of any fatal flaws. Seems likely it's a matter of time and physics and engineering; very difficult, but achievable. See for example: https://dspace.mit.edu/bitstream/handle/1721.1/51042/Tegmark-2009-Fast%20Fourier%20transfo.pdf;sequence=1 https://dspace.mit.edu/bitstream/handle/1721.1/51042/Tegmark...