What is astrophotonics?
Astronomy and/or astrophysics is dedicated to the study of the universe – using observational, theoretical and computational techniques to understand the physical properties, origin, history and fate of celestial objects and the universe itself.
Photonics is the use of materials to manipulate light, involving the emission, transmission, processing and detection of light. The telecommunication and information technology revolution of recent decades is a direct result of advances in optics that have allowed higher information bandwidths to be transmitted over longer distances. This in turn has ushered in the Information Age.
Astrophotonics is where these areas meet. Astrophotonics is the use of photonic techniques and devices to manipulate our collection and processing of light for the purpose of improving our ability to probe and hence understand the universe. It has many applications and new technologies are constantly being developed.