17 Dec
2003
17 Dec
'03
11:17 p.m.
They do not need to be joined. There already exist examples of "large"
Okay, "joined" in the sense that the light collected by each mirror must be added coherently to produce the final image. This coherent addition requires precise control of the phase of each component to a small fraction of a wavelength. This is hard. Someday there may be phased array antennas operating at optical wavelengths. Not yet. Phil