Speaker
Description
The 4-telescope VERITAS array has previously used the asteroid occultation technique to measure the angular diameters of stars as faint as 13th magnitude. Unlike Stellar Intensity Interferometry, the asteroid occultation technique has been demonstrated to measure stellar diameters on cooler classes of stars, extending the measurements of stellar radii to F and G stars. In this presentation, I will explore the possibility of using the 50 Small Size Telescopes (SSTs) in the CTAO-S array as a new type of optical astrophysical observatory, capable of measuring the angular diameters of stars to below 10 microarcseconds and reconstructing surface features and silhouettes of asteroids in the Kuiper belt. These emergent capabilities can substantially expand our knowledge of stellar evolution and structure, as well as our understanding of the origin and evolution of our solar system's asteroid population.
