Palm-sized glass chip links telescopes to work as one

A tiny photonic chip developed at Heriot-Watt University has combined light from two telescopes at the CHARA Array in California, letting them act as a single powerful instrument. Used for the first time in on-sky observations, the chip replaces bulky mirror-and-lens systems with laser-written glass channels. The work, in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, could aid future studies of exoplanets.