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Diffraction spikes are lines radiating from bright light sources, causing what is known as the starburst effect [1] or sunstars [2] in photographs and in vision. They are artifacts caused by light diffracting around the support vanes of the secondary mirror in reflecting telescopes , or edges of non-circular camera apertures , and around ...
The two additional spikes are a result of diffraction from the struts holding the telescope's secondary mirror in front of the main mirror. As shown in the figure on the right, diffraction from the three struts creates six spikes, but four of these are designed to co-align with the spikes created from the diffraction caused by the rim.
Diffraction is the same physical effect as interference, but interference is typically applied to superposition of a few waves and the term diffraction is used when many waves are superposed. [1]: 433 Italian scientist Francesco Maria Grimaldi coined the word diffraction and was the first to record accurate observations of the phenomenon in 1660.
Images from telescopes with segmented mirrors also exhibit diffraction spikes due to diffraction from the mirrors' edges. As before, two spikes are perpendicular to each edge orientation, resulting in six spikes (plus two fainter ones due to the spider supporting the secondary mirror) in photographs taken by the James Webb Space Telescope. [15]
1.1 Diffraction spikes in the James Webb Space Telescope images. 6 comments. 1.2 Where the building blocks/nutrients come from in plants (and all living things)
The mask consists of three separate grids, positioned in such a way that the grids produce three angled diffraction spikes at the focal plane of the instrument for each bright image element. As the instrument's focus is changed, the central spike appears to move from one side of the star to the other.
Employing secondary mirrors in optical systems causes some image distortion due to the obstruction of the secondary itself, and distortion from the spider mounts, commonly seen as cross-shaped diffraction spikes radiating from bright stars seen in astronomical images. For large telescopes, the secondary mirror can reach a significant size.
In Unicode, the "Eight Spoked Asterisk" symbol is U+2733.; The spikes are specially visible around Jupiter's moon Europa (on the left) in this NIRCam image.. The 8-pointed diffraction spikes of the star images from the James Webb Space Telescope are due to the diffraction caused by the hexagonal shape of the mirror sections and the struts holding the secondary mirror.