Feasibility of coupling Euro-50 interferometrically to a Carlina hypertelescope

摘要

The interferometric coupling of an ELT with a large multi-aperture imaging interferometer can open new areas of science on compact objects. Numerical simulations indeed show that the combined image retains respectively the high luminosity and the high angular resolution of both instruments. The Canarian site envisaged for the Euro-50 is adjacent to the large Caldera de Taburiente crater, a favorable site for an optical and dilute form of the Arecibo radio-telescope. Our preliminary study indicates that the effective aperture size can exceed 1600m if a balloon or kite is used to carry the focal optics, also receiving a coude beam from the Euro-50 if coupled. In spite of inherent limitations regarding field size and crowding, the 50 micro-arcsecond resolution thus achievable in visible snapshot images is of interest for stellar physics, active galactic nuclei and deep cosmological imaging of remote galaxies.