LIVE: Pioneering visible-light ELT-scale imaging at the LBT

This program builds a visible-light extension for interferometric imaging (LIVE) on the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT). The LBT, featuring two 8.4-m mirrors on a common mount that form a 22.8-m effective aperture, can be considered the first of the Extremely Large Telescopes (ELTs). LIVE leverages existing LBT infrastructure with targeted, low-risk upgrades to improve its visible-light performance, and adds a fast, sensitive, visible-light camera. This project will enable groundbreaking science at unprecedented resolution, probing structures and planet formation in protoplanetary disks, mapping Solar system moons, imaging dynamical processes and feedback in active galactic nuclei, and imaging the outflows and binary interaction of massive and evolved stars. Early-stage researchers and students will benefit from access to instrument development and deployment for hands-on research experience. As a pathfinder, LIVE generates valuable optical design expertise and trains the next generation of scientists in Adaptive Optics techniques for interferometry and fringe tracking. The LBT Interferometer Visible Extension (LIVE) is a pioneering instrument for ELT-scale visible imaging. LIVE enables imaging at the 4-5 mas scale. The unprecedented high resolution will drive advances in both engineering and imaging, serving as a science and instrumentation pathfinder for the US-ELT program. As such, LIVE addresses numerous open questions in astronomy across an enormous range in physical scales by imaging (i) the surfaces of stars to measure their activity and evolution; (ii) Solar System bodies, such Io and Europa, to monitor surface changes; (iii) emission from highly ionized, outflowing material which traces the impact of the supermassive black hole on the host galaxy; and (iv) star-formation sites in external galaxies to pinpoint the driving processes. LIVE also supports the search for habitable exoplanets and our understanding of how planets form. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.