First light for the GRAVITY+ Adaptive Optics: Extreme adaptive optics for the Very Large Telescope Interferometer

GRAVITY+ improves by orders of magnitude the sensitivity, sky-coverage, and contrast of the Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI). A central part of this project is the development of Gravity Plus Adaptive Optics (GPAO), a dedicated high-order and laser-guide star adaptive optics (AO) system for VLTI. GPAO consists of four state-of-the-art AO systems that equip all 8 m class Unit Telescopes (UTs) for the wavefront correction of the VLTI instruments. It offers both visible and infrared natural guide star (NGS) and laser guide star (LGS) operations. The paper presents the design, operations, and performances of GPAO. We illustrate the improvement brought by GPAO with interferometric observations obtained during the commissioning of the NGS mode at the end of 2024. These science results include the first optical interferometry observations of a redshift z ~ 4 quasar, the spectroscopy of a cool brown-dwarf with magnitude K ~ 21.0, the first observations of a Class I young star with GRAVITY, and the first sub-micro arcsecond differential astrometry in the optical. Together with the entire GRAVITY+ project, the implementation of GPAO is a true paradigm shift for observing the optical Universe at very high angular resolution.

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Publication Details

Journal
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Published
2025-11-04
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202555666
Citations
2
Primary Topic
Adaptive optics and wavefront sensing
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
2.49

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article

First light for the GRAVITY+ Adaptive Optics: Extreme adaptive optics for the Very Large Telescope Interferometer

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2 citations
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Adaptive optics and wavefront sensing
2.49
article

First light for the GRAVITY+ Adaptive Optics: Extreme adaptive optics for the Very Large Telescope Interferometer

A. Kaufer, N. Schuhler, A. Marcotto, E. García, E. Sturm, M. Subroweit, Stéphane Curaba, W. Hackenberg, A. Eckart, M. Hartl, P. Bourget, S. Lacour, G. Finger, R. Laugier, S. Hoenig, Nuno Morujão, A. Delboulbé, J. Woillez, F. Millour, M. Houllé, Carlos M. Correia, R. Dembet, Karl Leo, A. Drescher, P. Guajardo, O. Pfuhl, Christopher Blanchard, F. Mang, Selçuk Yazıcı, Jean-Philippe Berger, T. Ott, Pavel Shchekaturov, S. Lagarde, C. Soenke, C. Rau, S. Oberti, F. Widmann, P. W. Krempl, Pierre-Olivier Petrucci, S. Uysal, Petra Kern, S. Gillessen, L. Kreidberg, P. Burgos, Azzurra Bigioli, E. Wiezorrek, Luis Esteras Otal, R. Abuter, K. R. W. Tristram, C. Gouvret, M Fabricius, S. Guieu, R. Petrov, R. Frahm, H. Nowacki, Ferréol Soulez, D. Defrère, P. Léna, J. Stadler, J. Kolb, C. Sykes, W. Brandner, C. Bailet, Nicolás Dubost, Pascale Hibon, F. Haußmann, T. Paumard, A. Mérand, F. Gonté, V. Lapeyrère, P. Garcia, H. Feuchtgruber, G. Zins, M. Horrobin, P. Fédou, Y. Magnard, H. Korhonen, N. Pourré, Olivier Lai, Tiago Gomes, J. Kammerer, J. Leftley, L. J. Tacconi, F. Delplancke, J. P. Gil, Thomas Shimizu, E. Stadler, N. More, Muhammad Salman, M. Carbillet, N. Hubin, G. Bourdarot, Thierry Moulin, F. Eisenhauer, J.-B. Le Bouquin, D. Lutz, Fatmé Allouche, T. Henning, M. Benisty, L. Jocou, P. Kervella, C. Édouard, J. Brulé, P. Berio, O. Boebion, Vítor Leal, A. Jost, J. Schubert, Ihsan Ibn Taïeb, F. Patru, L. Jochum, R. García López, N. M. Förster Schreiber, M. Montargès, J. Scigliuto, B. Lopez, Karine Perraut, D. Maurel, J. Sánchez-Bermúdez, L. Pallanca, M. Riquelme, G. Perrin, S. von Fellenberg, S. Scheithauer, S. Robbe-Dubois, R. Genzel, S. Rochat, Anthony Berdeu, Mathias Nowak, H. Bonnet, X. Haubois, C. Straubmeier, S. Rabien, R. Davies, E. Wieprecht, J. Shangguan, V. Gopinath, J. Graf, B. Courtney Barrer
article en
2 citations

Abstract

GRAVITY+ improves by orders of magnitude the sensitivity, sky-coverage, and contrast of the Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI). A central part of this project is the development of Gravity Plus Adaptive Optics (GPAO), a dedicated high-order and laser-guide star adaptive optics (AO) system for VLTI. GPAO consists of four state-of-the-art AO systems that equip all 8 m class Unit Telescopes (UTs) for the wavefront correction of the VLTI instruments. It offers both visible and infrared natural guide star (NGS) and laser guide star (LGS) operations. The paper presents the design, operations, and performances of GPAO. We illustrate the improvement brought by GPAO with interferometric observations obtained during the commissioning of the NGS mode at the end of 2024. These science results include the first optical interferometry observations of a redshift z ~ 4 quasar, the spectroscopy of a cool brown-dwarf with magnitude K ~ 21.0, the first observations of a Class I young star with GRAVITY, and the first sub-micro arcsecond differential astrometry in the optical. Together with the entire GRAVITY+ project, the implementation of GPAO is a true paradigm shift for observing the optical Universe at very high angular resolution.

Astronomy and AstrophysicsVol. 707
Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 (FR), University College Dublin (IE), École Normale Supérieure de Lyon (FR), Australian National University (AU), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR), Dublin Institute For Advanced Studies (IE), European Southern Observatory (DE), University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (US), Lyon College (US), University of Cologne (DE), Universidade do Porto (PT), Université Paris Cité (FR), Sorbonne Université (FR), Chinese Academy of Science South America Center for Astronomy (CL), Institute of Astrophysics and Space Sciences (PT), Sorbonne Paris Cité (FR), Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (DE), Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology (US), Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics (DE), Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (DE), Institute of Astronomy (RU), Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur (FR), Astronomy and Space (AU), Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy (DE), University of Southampton (GB), Technical University of Munich (DE), Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (MX), Université Grenoble Alpes (FR), KU Leuven (BE)
Max-Planck-Förderstiftung, European Commission, Science Foundation Ireland, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Agence Nationale de la Recherche, Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung, Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek, Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Vlaamse regering, Observatoire de Paris, Université de Recherche Paris Sciences et Lettres
Openalex Percentile: Top 9%
Adaptive optics and wavefront sensing
2.49
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