Tuesday, 3rd of December, 16.00
(16.00 Coffee & Cake in the foyer, 16.30 talk & discussion)
Lecture Hall III
Why are astrophysicists always aiming for new instruments? Frank Eisenhauer will explain this on the example of the new GRAVITY instrument at the European Very Large Telescope Interferometer.
His presentation takes us from exoplanets all the way to distant quasars, with special focus on the Galactic Center. The ongoing instrument upgrade is about to boost interferometry to the next level, then opening up the extragalactic sky, providing ever higher contrast for observations of exoplanets and more sensitive observations of the Galactic Center. We will present first results and discuss the discovery space opening up, e.g. the detailed view on Black Holes at cosmic dawn, the detection and characterization of exoplanets and their atmospheres, and the spin of the Galactic Center black hole.