University of California, Los Angeles

This project will develop a new methodology that will enable ground-breaking tests of Einstein’s theory of General Relativity (GR) and black hole growth models never before possible.  Such cutting-edge tests are within reach, using the telescopes at the W. M. Keck Observatory equipped with Adaptive Optics (AO), a revolutionary technology that has begun to allow astronomers to overcome the blurring effects of Earth’s atmosphere.  While the AO system has dramatically upgraded our ability to see into space, it has not reached its full scientific potential.  Measurement precision from Keck AO observations is limited by lack of knowledge of how the atmosphere has affected each point in the image.  This kind of data is finally publicly available through new equipment that provides measurements of turbulence at multiple layers in the atmosphere.  The UCLA team proposes to develop a new methodology (AO-Optimization) for using this data in post-processing to dramatically improve AO measurement precision across the entire field of view.  It is imperative to begin this work now so that the Keck AO system can be optimized in time to detect the effects of GR that will be possible to measure from observations of the nearest star ever imaged around a supermassive black hole (SO-2), as it makes its closest approach with the black hole, between 2016-2020.  There will not be a comparable event to test GR until 2034.