FEMTOLENS IMAGING OF A QUASAR CENTRAL ENGINE USING A DWARF STAR TELESCOPE

We show that it is possible to image the structure of a distant quasar on scales of less than or similar to 1 AU by constructing a telescope that uses a nearby dwarf star as its ''primary lens'' together with a satellite-borne ''secondary.'' The image produced by the primary is m agnified by similar to 10(6) in one direction but is contracted by 0.5 in the other and therefore contains highly degenerate one-dimensional information about the two-dimensional source. We discuss various meth ods for extracting information about the second dimension including '' femtolens interferometry'' where one measures the interference between different parts of the one-dimensional image with each other. Assumin g that the satellite could be dispatched to a position along a star-qu asar line of sight at a distance r from the Sun, the nearest available dwarf-star primary is likely to be at similar to 30 pc (r/45 AU)(-2). The secondary should consist of a one-dimensional array of mirrors ex tending similar to 170 m to achieve 1 AU resolution or similar to 350 m to achieve much less than 1 AU resolution.