For the first time, the MROI has interfered the starlight collected by two telescopes to form what is known as “fringes”. This signal was found on the star designated HIP 102488. Fringes encode high-resolution information about the structure of astronomical sources that even today’s largest telescopes cannot resolve.
First fringes for the MROI. The panel on the left shows a typical image seen when fringes are not present. The panel on the right shows a typical image when fringes have been found.
This marked a significant milestone for the project, and of course called for a joint celebration with the team at New Mexico Tech and the University of Cambridge, pictured below.
MROI team celebrates first fringes
More details can be found in this press release: https://www.nmt.edu/news/2026/magdalena-ridge-observatory-interferometer-achieves-first-fringes.php