  The STAR Ultra Peripheral Collisions program has collected a substantial
sample of $\rho$ mesons and for the first time at RHIC energies it has been
able to extract the distribution of momentum transfer t from diffractive
elastic scattering off the Au ion. The resulting diffraction pattern is
consistent with coherent scattering off a nuclear object the size of the Au
nuclei. Measurements of this nature can offer insights and guidance to the
ongoing preparations for the new electron ion programs.
