Lobster’s eye on the sky

“Look behind you!” would be lost on a lobster - it already has the ability too see all around itself without turning its head. Now

astronomers have designed a revolutionary new X-ray telescope that is based on the crustacean’s all-encompassing field of vision.

Many observations made in the X-ray spectrum are sudden and unpredictable and might be missed if astronomers have their telescopes pointed elsewhere. The ideal would be to have an eye on all the sky. This is the Lobster concept, conceived by Dr Nigel Bannister of the Space Research Centre at the University of Leicester. His findings have recently been presented at the Royal Astronomical Society National Astronomy Meeting.

“The great advantage of the Lobster design is an almost unlimited field of view,” said Dr. Bannister. “This makes it ideal for use as an all-sky X-ray monitor.”

Lobsters and some other crustaceans view the world through eyes that focus light over a very wide field of view by means of reflection, rather than by refraction as in the human eye. The lobster eye is an array of tube-like channels with a square cross-section.