How to See the Surface of a Star: New Mexico’s Secret Super-Telescope with Professor Michelle Creech-Eakman

What does it take to see the surface features of distant stars or track satellites in deep space? In this episode we sit down with Professor Michelle Creech-Ekman, Professor of Physics and Project Scientist at New Mexico Tech. From her roots in North Dakota to her pivotal work at JPL on the Keck Interferometer, Dr. Creech-Ekman shares her journey and her current groundbreaking project: the Magdalena Ridge Observatory Interferometer (MROI).

Perched 10,500 feet high in central New Mexico, the MROI is a engineering marvel. We dive deep into the tech behind this massive optical and infrared array, including:

• High-Precision Engineering: Custom Belgian-built altitude-altitude mounted telescopes and Italian "squashed" domes that can be relocated across 28 stations in just four hours.
• Extreme Resolution: How "optical trombones" in a light vacuum delay line allow the array to achieve spatial resolution down to half a milliarcsecond—roughly 90 times sharper than the angular size of Betelgeuse.
• Cutting-Edge Science: The observatory's historic milestone of reaching first fringes on July 12th, and its mission to image starspots, track expanding supernovas, and monitor objects in geosynchronous orbit.

Plus, Dr. Creech-Ekman reflects on her passion for inspiring the next generation of scientists, the importance of human spaceflight, and why maintaining a sense of wonder is vital.

Tune in for an inspiring conversation on human ingenuity, big tech, and reaching for the stars! BONUS - find out what the shape of a wire suspended between two poles is called!

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