Quantum telescope network planned for La Palma

Compiled with the help of artificial intelligence, based on Spanish-language information. Source below the article.

The Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) is driving a new way of observing the universe by connecting telescopes at the Roque de los Muchachos with quantum technology, the IAC has highlighted in a statement.

An international effort at IACTEC

Within the framework of the La Palma Quantum Interferometer (LPQI) project, those involved in the initiative and institutional representatives met from 8 to 10 September at IACTEC in La Laguna, Tenerife, for the LPQI Workshop 2026. The gathering presented the latest advances and defined the next phases of an initiative that seeks to link several optical telescopes at the Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos (ORM), located on the peaks of the municipality of Garafía.

The project brings together institutions from Spain, Italy, Taiwan and the Nordic countries, and currently involves two telescopes at the ORM.

How the technology works

The initiative will use interferometry techniques to combine the visible light captured by different telescopes and make them work as a single instrument, along with SPAD sensors: microchips capable of detecting individual photons and recording their arrival with a temporal resolution of picoseconds. Spanish LPQI groups are designing these sensors and their electronics, and characterising them for astronomical applications.

By comparing the arrival of photons at telescopes separated by large distances, the system will be able to distinguish far smaller details than each telescope could on its own, with an angular resolution – the ability to distinguish very small details – of tens of microarcseconds, up to a thousand times better than that of the Hubble Space Telescope.

The concentration of large telescopes at the ORM and the quality of its sky make La Palma a privileged location for developing this technology, it adds.

Scientific goals: black holes, exoplanets and the expansion of the universe

Among its scientific objectives are studying black holes and other extreme phenomena, exploring new avenues for detecting Earth-sized exoplanets, determining the Hubble constant – which measures the rate of expansion of the universe – using nearby supernovas, and measuring the diameters and atmospheres of stars.

“The LPQI represents a strategic commitment to developing technology at the Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos that can transform the way we observe the universe. For the IAC, this project reinforces the observatory’s role as a benchmark environment for astronomical innovation and opens up new opportunities for scientific and technological collaboration, with the potential to generate knowledge and capabilities that can also contribute to the development of La Palma,” said Valentín Martínez Pillet, director of the IAC.

Pathfinder phase and first results

The first phase, known as LPQI Pathfinder, will connect the Nordic Optical Telescope (NOT) and the Telescopio Nazionale Galileo (TNG), separated by around 550 metres, and will make it possible to validate the LPQI technology. The roadmap foresees the first scientific results in spring 2028, with an angular resolution of 160 microarcseconds.

“The Pathfinder will allow us to measure the angular size of the brightest stars and will be the first step towards a broader network of telescopes equipped with spectrographs,” explained Francisco Prada, principal investigator of the LPQI project, an affiliated researcher at the IAC and a research professor at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (IAA-CSIC).

Connecting science, technology and the island

The programme combined the scientific, technological and territorial dimensions of the LPQI. The institutional session featured Valentín Martínez Pillet, director of the IAC; Javier Franco, director general of the Canary Islands Agency for Research, Innovation and the Information Society; and Héctor Izquierdo, special commissioner for the Reconstruction of La Palma.

All three also took part in a round table with José Joaquín Hernández, director of the Plataforma Oceánica de Canarias (Plocan), and representatives of the Centre for the Development of Industrial Technology (CDTI) and EMERGE, on training, skilled employment and technology companies on the island.

The technical sessions addressed, for the LPQI Pathfinder, the development of the SPAD sensors, cameras, ultrafast electronics, cooling, time synchronisation, integration into the NOT and TNG telescopes, and data analysis using artificial intelligence. The working groups planned the next phases of integration and validation.

The challenge of picosecond synchronisation

Time synchronisation is one of the main technological challenges: using fibre-optic links, the telescopes will need to share a time reference with picosecond precision. A picosecond is a trillionth of a second, an interval in which light travels barely 0.3 millimetres. The Spanish collaborators in the LPQI will install and calibrate the system this autumn.

The meeting also addressed FIRNAS, the LPQI’s first spectrograph, designed for the Isaac Newton Telescope. “FIRNAS will separate starlight into different bands to improve the sensitivity of measurements and facilitate the incorporation of the Isaac Newton Telescope into the future LPQI network,” said Arturo Manchado, principal investigator of FIRNAS and head of LPQI at the IAC.

Proposals were also presented for developing, within the Pathfinder framework, experiments with synchronisation systems based on extremely precise quantum clocks, using techniques that employ entangled photons – particles of light whose properties remain linked. These techniques would make it possible to recover information about the phase of light and reconstruct images with greater precision.

“Combining these photons with starlight could allow us to access information that has so far been inaccessible and lay the foundations for a new generation of quantum telescope networks at the ORM,” said Luis Fernando Rodríguez, an LPQI collaborator, principal investigator of the Free Space Optical Communications (FSOC) laboratory and head of the IAC’s Electronics Department.

The capabilities developed by the LPQI can also be applied to quantum communications, marine sciences, satellites and medicine, the statement notes. The project also offers an opportunity to train talent and strengthen La Palma’s innovation ecosystem.

An Atlantic island-laboratory

The special commissioner for the Reconstruction of La Palma, Héctor Izquierdo, has set out a vision for the island in which science and technology carry growing weight in the island’s economy. According to the ideas presented, consolidating permanent research centres, developing the LPQI, research into volcanology and natural risks, geothermal energy, ocean observation and the blue economy could help shape a genuine Atlantic island-laboratory, specialising in areas of knowledge where La Palma enjoys unique advantages.

Izquierdo also stressed that this transformation must extend to society as a whole and to the productive sectors: “Science can contribute to more technological agriculture that uses water more efficiently, and to higher-value tourism linked to astronomy, nature and knowledge.”

The meeting gave fresh impetus to the development of the LPQI, whose scope is summed up in its motto: “More than science. An island that discovers. A society that prospers.”

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