The Planetary Systems Imager for TMT: overview and status

Fitzgerald, Michael P.; Sallum, Stephanie; Millar‐Blanchaer, Maxwell A.; Jensen-Clem, Rebecca; Hinz, Philip; Guyon, Olivier; Wang, Jason; Mazin, Benjamin A.; Skemer, Andrew; Chun, Mark; Males, Jared R.; Marois, Christian; Singh, Rajesh; Max, C. E.

doi:10.1117/12.2630410

Cited by 10 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…The 30 m telescope achieved minimal focal anisoplanatism RMS with five laser guide stars uniformly distributed on a circle with a radius of 35 arcseconds. This distribution closely resembles the laser guide star configuration of the NFIRAOS system from the 30 m telescope [27]. The 30 m telescope achieved minimal focal anisoplanatism RMS with five laser guide stars uniformly distributed on a circle with a radius of 35 arcseconds.…”

Section: The Residual Phase Variance Of Laser Tomographic Adaptive Op...supporting

confidence: 52%

Fundamental Limits on Earth-like Exoplanet Imaging with Large Telescopes Employing Laser Tomographic Adaptive Optics Systems: A Comparative Analysis of LGS AO and LTAO Systems

Deng,

Huang,

Wang

2024

Photonics

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Exoplanet imaging with high-contrast imaging adaptive optics systems, though challenging, is a promising path toward the characterization of terrestrial planets. We analyzed the fundamental limitations associated with the direct imaging of terrestrial exoplanets around low-mass stars with Extremely Large Telescopes using laser tomographic adaptive optics (LTAO) and derived the post-coronagraph image shape in the focal plane from LTAO systems. Additionally, the fundamental limitation of direct imaging was found to come from unseen spatial frequencies during tomographic reconstruction. Through the provision of optimization strategies for laser guide star (LGS) asterisms, based on the post-coronagraph image contrast, we aimed to assist in the design of LTAO systems for Extremely Large Telescopes, resulting in a six-fold improvement in the LTAO post-coronagraph image plane at 0.1 arcseconds.

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Section: The Residual Phase Variance Of Laser Tomographic Adaptive Op...supporting

confidence: 52%

Fundamental Limits on Earth-like Exoplanet Imaging with Large Telescopes Employing Laser Tomographic Adaptive Optics Systems: A Comparative Analysis of LGS AO and LTAO Systems

Deng,

Huang,

Wang

2024

Photonics

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“…Although the contrasts achieved by the wrapped staircase SVC experimentally are not yet at the required level for space missions seeking exo-Earths around Sun-like stars, they are suitable for ground-based Earth-like planets around M-type stars such as with the Extremely Large Telescope 36 – 38 This study presents experimental evidence that wrapped staircase SVCs have further potential for narrowband starlight suppression, shows promise in broadband light from lab results on HCST and IACT, and is a worthy avenue of further research for high contrast exoplanet imaging.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 91%

Laboratory demonstration of the wrapped staircase scalar vortex coronagraph

Desai

Ruane

Llop-Sayson

et al. 2023

J. Astron. Telesc. Instrum. Syst.

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.Of the over 5000 exoplanets that have been detected, only about a dozen have ever been directly imaged. Earth-like exoplanets are on the order of 10 billion times fainter than their host star in visible and near-infrared, requiring a coronagraph instrument to block primary starlight and allow for the imaging of nearby orbiting planets. In the pursuit of direct imaging of exoplanets, scalar vortex coronagraphs (SVCs) are an attractive alternative to vector vortex coronagraphs (VVCs). VVCs have demonstrated 2 × 10 − 9 raw contrast in broadband light but have several limitations due to their polarization properties. SVCs imprint the same phase ramp as VVCs on the incoming light and do not require polarization splitting, but they are inherently chromatic. Discretized phase ramp patterns such as a wrapped staircase help reduce SVC chromaticity and simulations show it outperforms a chromatic classical vortex in broadband light. We designed, fabricated, and tested a wrapped staircase SVC, and here we present the broadband characterization on the high contrast spectroscopy testbed. We also performed wavefront correction on the in-air coronagraph testbed at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and achieved an average raw contrasts of 3.2 × 10 − 8 in monochromatic light and 2.2 × 10 − 7 across a 10% bandwidth.

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“…These instruments will probe closer regions to the stars, where multiple exoplanets are expected to be. They will also be a milestone for the conception of exoplanet imaging instruments for the coming 30 m optical telescopes: Planetary Camera and Spectrograph for the Extremely Large Telescope [223] or Planetary Systems Imager for the Thirty Meter telescope [224]. In space, the Coronagraph Instrument of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will be the first flying instrument to include a focal plane wavefront control using two deformable mirrors [28].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Imaging exoplanets with coronagraphic instruments

Galicher¹,

Mazoyer²

2024

Comptes Rendus. Physique

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Exoplanetary science is a very active field of astronomy nowadays, with questions still opened such as how planetary systems form and evolve (occurrence, process), why such a diversity of exoplanets is observed (mass, radius, orbital parameters, temperature, composition), and what are the interactions between planets, circumstellar disk and their host star. Several complementary methods are used for the detection of exoplanets. Among these, imaging aims at the direct detection of the light reflected, scattered or emitted by exoplanets and circumstellar disks. This allows their spectral and polarimetric characterization. Such imaging remains challenging because of the large luminosity ratio (10 4 -10 10 ) and the small angular separation (fraction of an arcsecond) between the star and its environment. Over the past two decades, numerous techniques, including coronagraphy, have been developed to make exoplanet imaging a reality.This paper gives a broad overview of the subsystems that make up a coronagraphic instrument for imaging exoplanetary systems. It is especially intended for non-specialists or newcomers in the field. We explain the principle of coronagraphy and propose a formalism to understand their behavior. We discuss the impact of wavefront aberrations on the performance of coronagraphs and how they induce stellar speckles in the scientific image. Finally, we present instrumental and signal processing techniques used for on-sky minimization or a posteriori calibration of these speckles in order to improve the performance of coronagraphs.Résumé. L'exoplanétologie est un domaine très actif de l'astronomie moderne avec des questions encore ouvertes : comment les systèmes planétaires se forment-ils et évoluent-ils ; pourquoi une telle diversité d'exoplanètes est-elle observée (masse, rayon, paramètres orbitaux, température, composition) ; quelles sont les interactions entre les planètes, les disques circumstellaires et leur étoile hôte ? Plusieurs méthodes complémentaires sont utilisées pour la détection d'exoplanètes. Parmi celles-ci, l'imagerie permet la détection directe de la lumière réfléchie, diffusée ou émise par les exoplanètes et les disques circumstellaires. Ceci permet une caractérisation spectrale et polarimétrique. Obtenir une image d'exoplanète n'est cependant pas simple en raison du grand rapport de luminosité (10 4 -10 10 ) et de la faible séparation angulaire (fraction de seconde d'angle) entre l'étoile et son environnement. Depuis deux décennies, de nombreuses techniques, dont la coronographie, ont été développées pour faire de l'imagerie des exoplanètes une réalité.

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The Planetary Systems Imager for TMT: overview and status

Cited by 10 publications

References 3 publications

Fundamental Limits on Earth-like Exoplanet Imaging with Large Telescopes Employing Laser Tomographic Adaptive Optics Systems: A Comparative Analysis of LGS AO and LTAO Systems

Fundamental Limits on Earth-like Exoplanet Imaging with Large Telescopes Employing Laser Tomographic Adaptive Optics Systems: A Comparative Analysis of LGS AO and LTAO Systems

Laboratory demonstration of the wrapped staircase scalar vortex coronagraph

Imaging exoplanets with coronagraphic instruments

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