Antoine Émile Henry Labeyrie (born 12 May 1943) is a French
astronomer
An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses their studies on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. They observe astronomical objects such as stars, planets, moons, comets and galaxies – in either ...
, who held the Observational astrophysics chair at the
Collège de France
The Collège de France (), formerly known as the ''Collège Royal'' or as the ''Collège impérial'' founded in 1530 by François I, is a higher education and research establishment ('' grand établissement'') in France. It is located in Paris n ...
between 1991 and 2014, where he is currently professor emeritus. He is working with the
Hypertelescope Lise association, which aims to develop an extremely large
astronomical interferometer
An astronomical interferometer or telescope array is a set of separate telescopes, mirror segments, or radio telescope antennas that work together as a single telescope to provide higher resolution images of astronomical objects such as stars, n ...
with spherical geometry that might theoretically show features on Earth-like worlds around other suns, as its president. He is a member of the
French Academy of Sciences
The French Academy of Sciences (French: ''Académie des sciences'') is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French scientific research. It was at ...
in the Sciences of the Universe (''sciences de l'univers'') section. Between 1995 and 1999 he was director of the
Haute-Provence Observatory.
Labeyrie graduated from the "grande école"
SupOptique (École supérieure d'optique). He invented
speckle interferometry, and works with
astronomical interferometer
An astronomical interferometer or telescope array is a set of separate telescopes, mirror segments, or radio telescope antennas that work together as a single telescope to provide higher resolution images of astronomical objects such as stars, n ...
s. Labeyrie concentrated particularly on the use of "diluted optics" beam combination or "densified pupils" of a similar type but larger scale than those
Michelson used for measuring the diameters of stars in the 1920s, in contrast to other
astronomical interferometer
An astronomical interferometer or telescope array is a set of separate telescopes, mirror segments, or radio telescope antennas that work together as a single telescope to provide higher resolution images of astronomical objects such as stars, n ...
researchers who generally switched to pupil-plane beam combination in the 1980s and 1990s.
The
main-belt
The asteroid belt is a torus-shaped region in the Solar System, located roughly between the orbits of the planets Jupiter and Mars. It contains a great many solid, irregularly shaped bodies, of many sizes, but much smaller than planets, called ...
asteroid
An asteroid is a minor planet of the inner Solar System. Sizes and shapes of asteroids vary significantly, ranging from 1-meter rocks to a dwarf planet almost 1000 km in diameter; they are rocky, metallic or icy bodies with no atmosphere. ...
8788 Labeyrie (1978 VP2) is named in honor of Antoine Émile Henry Labeyrie and
Catherine Labeyrie. In 2000, he was awarded
The Benjamin Franklin Medal.
Hypertelescope
Labeyrie has proposed the idea of an astronomical interferometer where the individual telescopes are positioned in a spherical arrangement (requiring them to be positioned to a fraction of a wavelength). This geometry reduces the amount of pathlength compensation required when re-pointing the interferometer array (in fact a
Mertz corrector can be used rather than delay lines), but otherwise is little different from other existing instruments. He has suggested a space-based interferometer array much larger (and complex) than the
Darwin and
Terrestrial Planet Finder projects using this spherical geometry of array elements along with a densified pupil beam combiner, calling the endeavor a "Hypertelescope"
Laboratoire pour l’Interférométrie Stellaire et Exoplanétaire: Hypertelescope
project. It might theoretically show features on Earth-like worlds around other stars. According to ''New Scientist'':
See also
* Speckle imaging
*Exoplanets
An exoplanet or extrasolar planet is a planet outside the Solar System. The first possible evidence of an exoplanet was noted in 1917 but was not recognized as such. The first confirmation of detection occurred in 1992. A different planet, init ...
* Fractionated spacecraft
*Satellite constellation
A satellite constellation is a group of artificial satellites working together as a system. Unlike a single satellite, a constellation can provide permanent global or near-global coverage, such that at any time everywhere on Earth at least one s ...
References
*Antoine Labeyrie
Resolved imaging of extra-solar planets with future 10–100 km optical interferometric arrays
''Astronomy and Astrophysics Supplement Series'' 118 (1996), 517–24.
*Antoine Labeyrie
Snapshots of Alien Worlds – The Future of Interferometry
''Science'' 285 (1999), 1864–65 (full text limited to subscribers).
*Tony Reichhardt
''Space.com'', 16 September 1999.
*Govert Schilling
The hypertelescope: a zoom with a view
''New Scientist'', n. 2540, 23 February 2006 (full text limited to subscribers, article contains some scientific misconceptions).
*Bruce Dorminey
Astronomers build hypertelescope in southern French alps
''Forbes'', 26 March 2012
*
*
External links
Lise (Laboratoire pour l’Interférométrie Stellaire et Exoplanétaire)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Labeyrie, Antoine Emile Henry
20th-century French astronomers
1943 births
Living people
Winners of the Beatrice M. Tinsley Prize
Members of the French Academy of Sciences