Related papers: TEDI: the TripleSpec Exoplanet Discovery Instrumen…
Interstellar radar is a potential intermediate step between passive observation of exoplanets and interstellar exploratory missions. Compared to passive observation, it has the traditional advantages of radar astronomy. It can measure…
Here we describe our ongoing efforts to develop high-performance and sensitive instrumentation for use in the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence (SETI). These efforts include our recently deployed Search for Extraterrestrial…
The EXtreme PREcision Spectrograph (EXPRES) is a new Doppler spectrograph designed to reach a radial velocity measurement precision sufficient to detect Earth-like exoplanets orbiting nearby, bright stars. We report on extensive laboratory…
In this white paper, we propose an upgrade to the Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) consisting of the addition of a new 8m Unit Telescope (UT5). The primary goal of this upgrade is to optimise the VLTI for exoplanet detection by…
The Gemini Planet (GPI) imager is an "extreme" adaptive optics system being designed and built for the Gemini Observatory. GPI combines precise and accurate wavefront control, diffraction suppression, and a speckle-suppressing science…
Optical SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) instruments that can explore the very fast time domain, especially with large sky coverage, offer an opportunity for new discoveries that can complement multimessenger and time domain…
The Low Resolution Spectrometer of the MIRI, which forms part of the imager module, will provide R~100 long-slit and slitless spectroscopy from 5 to 12 micron. The design is optimised for observations of compact sources, such as exoplanet…
The Galactic Exoplanet Survey Telescope (GEST) will observe a 2 square degree field in the Galactic bulge to search for extra-solar planets using a gravitational lensing technique. This gravitational lensing technique is the only method…
Long baseline radio interferometers can provide some interesting opportunities for future SETI searches. Known advantages (compared to single dishes or beam-formed arrays), include the large reduction in false-positives due to the…
The radius of a planet is a fundamental parameter that probes its composition and habitability. Precise radius measurements are typically derived from the fraction of starlight blocked when a planet transits its host star. The wide-field…
The STARE instrument is a small aperture, wide-field, CCD-based telescope that delivers high cadence time series photometry on roughly 40,000 stars in a typical field centered on the galactic plane. In a two-month observing run on a field,…
The number of super-Earth and mini-Neptune planet discoveries has increased significantly in the last two decades thanks to transit and radial velocity surveys. When it is possible to apply both techniques, we can characterise the internal…
Transiting exoplanets in multi-planet systems exhibit non-Keplerian orbits as a result of the gravitational influence from companions which can cause the times and durations of transits to vary. The amplitude and periodicity of the transit…
Exozodiacal dust is warm or hot dust found in the inner regions of planetary systems orbiting main sequence stars, in or around their habitable zones. The dust can be the most luminous component of extrasolar planetary systems, but…
Extremely large telescopes (ELTs) present an unparalleled opportunity to study the magnetism, atmospheric dynamics, and chemistry of very low mass stars (VLMs), brown dwarfs, and exoplanets. Instruments such as the Giant Magellan Telescope…
The space missions TESS and PLATO plan to double the number of 4000 exoplanets already discovered and will measure the size of thousands of exoplanets around the brightest stars in the sky, allowing ground-based radial velocity spectroscopy…
AMBER is the first near infrared focal instrument of the VLTI. It combines three telescopes and produces spectrally resolved interferometric measures. This paper discusses some preliminary results of the first scientific observations of…
The World Space Observatory for Ultraviolet (WSO-UV) is an orbital optical telescope with a 1.7 m-diameter primary mirror currently under development. The WSO-UV is aimed to operate in the 115-310 nm UV spectral range. Its two major science…
The Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory - \emph{STEREO}, is a system of two identical spacecraft in Heliocentric Earth orbit. We use the two Heliospheric Imagers (HI), which are wide angle imagers with multi-baffle systems to do high…
We have constructed a thermally compensated field-widened monolithic Michelson interferometer that can be used with a medium-resolution spectrograph to measure precise Doppler radial velocities of stars. Our prototype monolithic fixed-delay…