SPHERE: a 'Planet Finder' instrument for the VLT

Beuzit, Jean-Luc; Feldt, M.; Dohlen, Kjetil; Mouillet, D.; Puget, P.; Wildi, F.; Abe, Lyu; Antichi, J.; Baruffolo, A.; Baudoz, Pierre; Boccaletti, A.; Carbillet, Marcel; Charton, J.; Claudi, R.; Downing, Mark; Fabron, Christophe; Feautrier, Philippe; Fedrigo, Enrico; Fusco, Thierry; Gach, Jean-Luc; Gratton, R.; Henning, Thomas; Hubin, N.; Joos, F.; Kasper, Markus; Langlois, M.; Lenzen, R.; Moutou, C.; Pavlov, A.; Petit, Cyril; Pragt, J.; Rabou, Patrick; Rigal, F.; Roelfsema, R.; Rousset, G.; Saïsse, M.; Schmid, H. M.; Stadler, Eric; Thalmann, Christian; Turatto, M.; Udry, S.; Vakili, F.; Waters, Rens

doi:10.1117/12.790120

Cited by 392 publications

(128 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…Gemini South [18], SCExAO at Subaru [19] and SPHERE at the VLT [20]. Table 2 summarises the main instruments / AO systems contributing or havint contributed to the field.…”

Section: From Pioneering Adaptive Optics Experiments To Extreme Adaptmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…8 Typical high-strehl raw PSF in the presence of turbulence in the VLT pupil (circular aperture obscured by the secondary mirror held by the spiders): without coronagraph (left), with a Lyot stop (middle left), with a Lyot stop and apodizer (middle right), with apodizer, Lyot stop and pupil stop masking the telescope spiders (right). These images were obtained with SPHERE [20], the well-controled radius measures 0.8 .…”

Section: Low-order Wavefront Sensing and Non-common Path Aberrationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Adaptive Optics in High-Contrast Imaging

Milli¹,

Mawet²,

Mouillet³

et al. 2016

Astronomy at High Angular Resolution

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The development of adaptive optics (AO) played a major role in modern astronomy over the last three decades. By compensating for the atmospheric turbulence, these systems enable to reach the diffraction limit on large telescopes. In this review, we will focus on high contrast applications of adaptive optics, namely, imaging the close vicinity of bright stellar objects and revealing regions otherwise hidden within the turbulent halo of the atmosphere to look for objects with a contrast ratio lower than 10 −4 with respect to the central star. Such high-contrast AO-corrected observations have led to fundamental results in our current understanding of planetary formation and evolution as well as stellar evolution. AO systems equipped three generations of instruments, from the first pioneering experiments in the nineties, to the first wave of instruments on 8m-class telescopes in the years 2000, and finally to the extreme AO systems that have recently started operations. Along with highcontrast techniques, AO enables to reveal the circumstellar environment: massive protoplanetary disks featuring spiral arms, gaps or other asymetries hinting at ongoing planet formation, young giant planets shining in thermal emission, or tenuous debris disks and micron-sized dust leftover from collisions in massive asteroid-belt analogs. After introducing the science case and technical requirements, we will review the architecture of standard and extreme AO systems, before presenting a few selected science highlights obtained with recent AO instruments.

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“…Gemini South [18], SCExAO at Subaru [19] and SPHERE at the VLT [20]. Table 2 summarises the main instruments / AO systems contributing or havint contributed to the field.…”

Section: From Pioneering Adaptive Optics Experiments To Extreme Adaptmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Low-order Wavefront Sensing and Non-common Path Aberrationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Adaptive Optics in High-Contrast Imaging

Milli¹,

Mawet²,

Mouillet³

et al. 2016

Astronomy at High Angular Resolution

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show abstract

“…Recent successes, such as the discovery of a multiple planet system around HR 8799 [7] and the planet-like object around Fomalhaut [8], are limited to very young systems for which the star/planet contrasts are reduced by several orders of magnitude, because the planets are still hot from their formation process and strongly radiate in the infrared. A new generation of extreme coronagraphs, such as SPHERE on the Very Large Telescope (VLT) [9] and GPI on the Gemini telescope [10], are becoming operational; they are expected to push the contrast limits considerably further, but may still stop short of detecting mature exoplanet systems. The latter are expected to be within the range for the future extremely large telescopes (ELTs) [11].…”

Section: The Extrasolar Planet Revolutionmentioning

confidence: 99%

High-dispersion spectroscopy of extrasolar planets: from CO in hot Jupiters to O ₂ in exo-Earths

Snellen

2014

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A.

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Ground-based high-dispersion spectroscopy could reveal molecular oxygen as a biomarker gas in the atmospheres of twin-Earths transiting red dwarf stars within the next 25 years. The required contrasts are only a factor of 3 lower than that already achieved for carbon monoxide in hot Jupiter atmospheres today but will need much larger telescopes because the target stars will be orders of magnitude fainter. If extraterrestrial life is very common and can therefore be found on planets around the most nearby red dwarf stars, it may be detectable via transmission spectroscopy with the next-generation extremely large telescopes. However, it is likely that significantly more collecting area is required for this. This can be achieved through the development of low-cost flux collector technology, which combines a large collecting area with a low but sufficient image quality for high-dispersion spectroscopy of bright stars.

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“…Further, this has to be combined with advanced observing strategies like Angular Differential Imaging (ADI, see [6]) to enable PSF residuals subtraction, achieved through state-of-the art data reduction algorithm like LOCI [7] or PCA/KLIP [8]. High-contrast "planet imager" instruments meeting all these requirements have only been recently commissioned on 8+-m class telescopes [9][10][11], and are starting to deliver impressive first science [12,13]. In the foreseeable future, better contrast will only be achievable from space observatories, e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Implementing focal-plane phase masks optimized for real telescope apertures with SLM-based digital adaptive coronagraphy

Kühn¹,

Patapis²,

Ruane³

et al. 2017

Opt. Express

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Direct imaging of exoplanets or circumstellar disk material requires extreme contrast at the 10 -6 to 10 -12 levels at < 100 mas angular separation from the star. Focal-plane mask (FPM) coronagraphic imaging has played a key role in this field, taking advantage of progress in Adaptive Optics on ground-based 8+m class telescopes. However, large telescope entrance pupils usually consist of complex, sometimes segmented, non-ideal apertures, which include a central obstruction for the secondary mirror and its support structure. In practice, this negatively impacts wavefront quality and coronagraphic performance, in terms of achievable contrast and inner working angle. Recent theoretical works on structured darkness have shown that solutions for FPM phase profiles, optimized for non-ideal apertures, can be numerically derived. Here we present and discuss a first experimental validation of this concept, using reflective liquid crystal spatial light modulators as adaptive FPM coronagraphs.

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SPHERE: a 'Planet Finder' instrument for the VLT

Cited by 392 publications

References 2 publications

Adaptive Optics in High-Contrast Imaging

Adaptive Optics in High-Contrast Imaging

High-dispersion spectroscopy of extrasolar planets: from CO in hot Jupiters to O ₂ in exo-Earths

Implementing focal-plane phase masks optimized for real telescope apertures with SLM-based digital adaptive coronagraphy

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SPHERE: a 'Planet Finder' instrument for the VLT

Cited by 392 publications

References 2 publications

Adaptive Optics in High-Contrast Imaging

Adaptive Optics in High-Contrast Imaging

High-dispersion spectroscopy of extrasolar planets: from CO in hot Jupiters to O 2 in exo-Earths

Implementing focal-plane phase masks optimized for real telescope apertures with SLM-based digital adaptive coronagraphy

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High-dispersion spectroscopy of extrasolar planets: from CO in hot Jupiters to O ₂ in exo-Earths