Related papers: Contrast Enhancement of Binary Star System Using a…
Context. Direct imaging of exoplanets takes advantage of state-of-the-art adaptive optics (AO) systems, coronagraphy, and post-processing techniques. Coronagraphs attenuate starlight to mitigate the unfavorable flux ratio between an…
We show that space-based telescopes such as the proposed Terrestrial Planet Finder Coronagraph will be able to detect the light scattered by the interstellar grains along lines of sight passing near stars in our Galaxy. The relative flux of…
As adaptive optics technology continues to improve, the stellar coronagraph will play an ever increasing role in ground-based high-contrast imaging observations. Though several different image masks exist for the most common type of…
Detecting binary stars in photometric time series is traditionally done by measuring eclipses. This requires the orbital plane to be aligned with the observer. A new method without that requirement uses stellar oscillations to measure…
We report on the identification of the optical counterpart to Star1, the exotic object serendipitously discovered by Deutsch et al. in the core of the Galactic globular cluster NGC 6624. Star1 has been classified by Deutsch et al. as either…
(abridged) Vortex coronagraphs are among the most promising solutions to perform high contrast imaging at small angular separations. They feature a very small inner working angle, a clear 360 degree discovery space, have demonstrated very…
Very high dynamical range coronagraphs targeting direct exo-planet detection (10^9 - 10^10 contrast) at small angular separation (few lambda/D units) usually require an input wavefront quality on the order of ten thousandths of wavelength…
High-dispersion coronagraphy (HDC) optimally combines high contrast imaging techniques such as adaptive optics/wavefront control plus coronagraphy to high spectral resolution spectroscopy. HDC is a critical pathway towards fully…
A growing number of close binary stars are being discovered among central stars of planetary nebulae. Recent and ongoing surveys are finding new systems and contributing to our knowledge of the evolution of close binary systems. The push to…
Deep sub-diffraction exoplanet discovery currently lies beyond the reach of state-of-the-art direct imaging coronagraphs, which typically have an inner working angle larger than the diffraction scale. We present an experimental…
Accurate determinations of masses and radii in binary stars, along with estimates of the effective temperatures, metallicities, and other properties, have long been used to test models of stellar evolution. As might be expected,…
Nulling interferometry has been identified as a competitive technique for the detection of extrasolar planets. The technique consists in combining out-of-phase pairs of telescopes to null effectively the light of a bright star an reveal the…
Direct imaging of exoplanets relies on complex wavefront sensing and control architectures. In addition to fast adaptive optics systems, most of the future high-contrast imaging instruments will soon be equipped with focal plane wavefront…
Direct imaging of exoplanets represents a challenge for astronomical instrumentation due to the high-contrast ratio and small angular separation between the host star and the faint planet. Multi-star systems pose additional challenges for…
High-dynamic range imaging from space in the visible, aiming in particular at the detection of terrestrial exoplanets, necessitates not only the use of a coronagraph, but also of adaptive optics to correct optical defects in real time.…
Coronagraphs allow for faint off-axis exoplanets to be observed, but are limited to angular separations greater than a few beam widths. Accessing closer-in separations would greatly increase the expected number of detectable planets, which…
I present a brief summary of three different types of binary star - astrometric, spectroscopic and eclipsing - and tabulate the properties of these systems that can be determined directly from observations. Eclipsing binary stars are the…
Residual speckles due to aberrations arising from optical errors after the split between the wavefront sensor and the science camera path are the most significant barriers to imaging extrasolar planets. While speckles can be suppressed…
A multitude of coronagraphic techniques for the space-based direct detection and characterization of exo-solar terrestrial planets are actively being pursued by the astronomical community. Typical coronagraphs have internal shaped focal…
Pulsating stars in eclipsing binary systems are powerful tools to test stellar models. Binarity enables to constrain the pulsating component physical parameters, whose knowledge drastically improves the input physics for asteroseismic…