Optical interferometry

Okay kiddo, so have you ever played with two flashlights and shone them onto the same spot on the wall? And when you did that, did you notice that the spot on the wall got brighter because you had more light shining on it?

Well, that's kind of like what happens with optical interferometry, but with light waves instead of flashlights. Scientists use special tools to split a beam of light into two separate beams, which they point at the same spot that they want to study.

These two beams of light then bounce off of whatever they're studying, like a star or a planet, and travel back to the instrument. When the two beams of light come back together, they create an interference pattern, which is kind of like a pattern you might make with different colored markers or paint.

This interference pattern can help scientists learn more about the thing they're studying, like its size, shape, and movements. Interferometry is really useful because it allows scientists to study objects that are really far away, like stars and galaxies, in really fine detail.

Overall, optical interferometry is a fancy tool that helps scientists learn more about the universe using light waves, kind of like shining two flashlights onto the same spot on the wall to make it brighter.