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Revolutionary Lantern Enhances Ground Telescope's Cosmic Vision

11/1/2025

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Summary

Story summary

Researchers used a photonic lantern on the Subaru Telescope in Hawaii to measure Beta Canis Minoris’s surrounding disk, about 162 light-years from Earth, with unprecedented sharpness.
The device revealed an asymmetrical hydrogen disk, suggesting Beta Canis Minoris may be in a binary system.
The lantern bypasses the diffraction limit, enabling ground-based telescopes to access details seen by space-based observatories.
This innovation could expand ground-based telescope capabilities toward space-based results.

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Story summary

Researchers used a photonic lantern on the Subaru Telescope in Hawaii to measure Beta Canis Minoris’s surrounding disk, about 162 light-years from Earth, with unprecedented sharpness.
The device revealed an asymmetrical hydrogen disk, suggesting Beta Canis Minoris may be in a binary system.
The lantern bypasses the diffraction limit, enabling ground-based telescopes to access details seen by space-based observatories.
This innovation could expand ground-based telescope capabilities toward space-based results.