Related papers: The Extreme Polarimeter: Design, Performance, Firs…
The direct detection of exoplanets has been the subject of intensive research in the recent years. Data obtained with future high-contrast imaging instruments optimized for giant planets direct detection are strongly limited by the speckle…
We present the first results of an asteroid photo--polarimetry program started at Asiago--Cima Ekar Observatory. The aim of our survey is to estimate diversity in polarimetric properties of asteroids belonging to different taxonomic and…
Accreting X-ray pulsars (XRPs) are presumably ideal targets for polarization measurements, as their high magnetic field strength is expected to polarize the emission up to a polarization degree of ~80%. However, such expectations are being…
Direct imaging is the primary technique currently used to detect young and warm exoplanets and understand their formation scenarios. The extreme flux ratio between an exoplanet and its host star requires the use of coronagraphs to attenuate…
Accurately modeling how real-world materials reflect light remains a core challenge in inverse rendering, largely due to the scarcity of real measured reflectance data. Existing approaches rely heavily on synthetic datasets with simplified…
The Twinkle space telescope has been designed for the characterisation of exoplanets and Solar System objects. Operating in a low Earth, Sun-synchronous orbit, Twinkle is equipped with a 45 cm telescope and visible (0.4 - 1um) and infrared…
The ~39-m European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) will be the largest telescope ever built. This makes it particularly suitable for sensitive polarimetric observations, as polarimetry is a photon-starved technique. However, the telescope…
The search for exoplanets is an active field in astronomy, with direct imaging as one of the most challenging methods due to faint exoplanet signals buried within stronger residual starlight. Successful detection requires advanced image…
In our solar system, the densely cloud-covered atmosphere of Venus stands out as an example of how polarimetry can be used to gain information on cloud composition and particle mean radius. With current interest running high on discovering…
Orbital variation in reflected starlight from exoplanets could eventually be used to detect surface oceans. Exoplanets with rough surfaces, or dominated by atmospheric Rayleigh scattering, should reach peak brightness in full phase, orbital…
In the last decade, imaging polarimeters based on micropolarizer arrays have been developed for use in terrestrial remote sensing and metrology applications. Micropolarizer-based sensors are dramatically smaller and more mechanically robust…
Polarized scattering in planetary atmospheres is computed in the context of exoplanets. The problem of polarized radiative transfer is solved for a general case of absorption and scattering, while Rayleigh and Mie polarized scattering are…
We present SPLOT, a small scale pilot survey to test the potential of snapshot (single epoch) linear imaging polarimetry as a supplementary tool to traditional transient follow-up. Transients exist in a vast volume of observational…
We present a novel method for direct detection and characterization of exoplanets from space. This method uses four collecting telescopes, combined with phase chopping and a spectrometer, with observations on only a few baselines rather…
Determining the habitability of terrestrial exoplanets is a complex problem that represents the next major step for the astrophysical community. The majority of current models treat these planets as homogeneous or contain heterogeneity that…
Many objects on the sky exhibit a centrosymmetric polarization pattern, particularly in cases involving single scattering around a central source. Utilizing a novel liquid crystal device (the ``theta cell'') that transforms the coordinate…
The properties of dust in the interstellar medium (ISM) nearest the Sun are poorly understood because the low column densities of dust toward nearby stars induce little photometric reddening, rendering the grains largely undetectable.…
X-ray polarimetry promises to give qualitatively new information about high-energy astrophysical sources, such as binary black hole systems, micro-quasars, active galactic nuclei, and gamma-ray bursts. We designed, built and tested a hard…
We have upgraded IRCAL, the near-infrared science camera of the Lick Observatory adaptive optics system, to add a dual-channel imaging polarimetry mode. This mode uses an optically contacted YLF (LiYF_4) Wollaston prism to provide…
Time-resolved photometry is an important new probe of the physics of condensate clouds in extrasolar planets and brown dwarfs. Extreme adaptive optics systems can directly image planets, but precise brightness measurements are challenging.…