Investigators funded by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research are conducting research under the name of 'ghost-imaging,' where a visual image of an object is created by means of light that has never interacted with the object.
University of Maryland, Baltimore Campus, professor (Dr.) Yanhua Shih initiated ghost-imaging research in 1995, by using entangled photons. In the experiment, one photon passed through stenciled patterns in a mask to trigger a detector, and another photon was captured by a second detector. Surprisingly, an image of the pattern between the two detectors appeared, which the physics community called ghost-imaging.
Dr. Deacon said he believes ghost-imaging may enable a satellite to be equipped with a detector and that would be coupled with a second camera that would take images of the sun. That combination of technologies could generate ghost images of the Earth's surface, even if there are obstructing atmospheric conditions. |