Related papers: Super Earth Explorer: A Coronagraphic Off-Axis Spa…
Due to their extremely small luminosity compared to the stars they orbit, planets outside our own Solar System are extraordinarily difficult to detect directly in optical light. Careful photometric monitoring of distant stars, however, can…
A new 10 meter diameter telescope is being constructed for deployment at the NSF South Pole research station. The telescope is designed for conducting large-area millimeter and sub-millimeter wave surveys of faint, low contrast emission, as…
Future radial velocity, astrometric, and direct-imaging surveys will find nearby Earth-sized planets within the habitable zone in the near future. How can we search for water and oxygen in those nontransiting planets? We show that a…
This paper presents initial results from the ESA-funded ``SUPPPPRESS'' project, which aims to develop high-performance liquid-crystal coronagraphs for direct imaging of Earth-like exoplanets in reflected light. The project focuses on…
We investigate the possiblity to detect Earth-like planets, in the visible and the near infrared domains, with ground based Extremely Large Telescopes equipped with adaptive systems capable of providing high Strehl ratios. From a detailed…
Future space telescopes may be able to directly image $\sim$10 - 100 planets with sizes and orbits consistent with habitable surface conditions ("exo-Earth candidates" or EECs), but observers will face difficulty in distinguishing these…
Direct detection and detailed characterization of exoplanets using extreme adaptive optics (ExAO) is a key science goal of future extremely large telescopes (ELTs). However, wavefront errors will limit the sensitivity of this endeavor.…
The two Terrestrial Planet Finder (TPF) missions aim to perform spectroscopy on extrasolar Earths; TPF-C will operate in visible light, and TPF-I will operate in the mid-infrared. Extrasolar Earths are assumed to be roughly 26 magnitude in…
AKARI (formerly ASTRO-F) is an infrared space telescope designed for an all-sky survey at 10-180 (mu)m, and deep pointed surveys of selected areas at 2-180 (mu)m. The deep pointed surveys with AKARI will significantly advance our…
General arguments for optimized coronagraphy in the search for planets are presented. First, off-axis telescopes provide the best telescopic platforms for use with coronagraphy, and telescope fabrication technology now allows the…
We present the SPICA Coronagraphic Instrument (SCI), which has been designed for a concentrated study of extra-solar planets (exoplanets). SPICA mission provides us with a unique opportunity to make high contrast observations because of its…
High Definition Astrometry (0.1 - 1.0 micro-arcseconds) will open a new window into neighboring planetary systems. For the first time, the realm of temperate terrestrial worlds will be explored. This includes Earth Analogs, thereby allowing…
We propose to search for biosignatures in the spectra of reflected light from about 100 Earth-sized planets that are already known to be orbiting in their habitable zones (HZ). For a sample of G and K type hosts, most of these planets will…
The mission of NASA's Terrestrial Planet Finder (TPF) is to find Earth-like planets orbiting other stars and characterize the atmospheres of these planets using spectroscopy. Because of the enormous brightness ratio between the star and the…
The Kilodegree Extremely Little Telescope (KELT) survey is a ground-based program designed to search for transiting exoplanets orbiting relatively bright stars. To achieve this, the KELT Science Team operates two planets facilities -…
Searching for nearby exoplanets with direct imaging is one of the major scientific drivers for both space and ground-based programs. While the second generation of dedicated high-contrast instruments on 8-m class telescopes is about to…
We investigate directly imaging exoplanets around eclipsing binaries, using the eclipse as a natural tool for dimming the binary and thus increasing the planet to star brightness contrast. At eclipse, the binary becomes point-like, making…
The Extreme Physics Explorer (EPE) is a concept timing/spectroscopy mission that would use micro-channel plate optics (MCPO) to provide 4 square meters effective area focused to ~1 arc-min onto an X-ray calorimeter. We describe science…
There are different methods for finding exoplanets such as radial spectral shifts, astrometrical measurements, transits, timing etc. Gravitational microlensing (including pixel-lensing) is among the most promising techniques with the…
The study of extrasolar planets has rapidly expanded to encompass the search for new planets, measurements of sizes and masses, models of planetary interiors, planetary demographics and occurrence frequencies, the characterization of…