Related papers: PLATO: PSF modelling using a microscanning techniq…
Previous studies determining which astronomical photometry software is best suited for a particular dataset are usually focused on speed, source classification, and/or meeting a sensitivity requirement. For faint objects in particular, the…
We demonstrate that microlensing can be used for detecting planets in binary stellar systems. This is possible because in the geometry of planetary binary systems where the planet orbits one of the binary component and the other binary star…
The effects of telluric absorption on infrared spectra present a problem for the observer. Strong molecular absorptions from species whose concentrations vary with time can be particularly challenging to remove precisely. Yet removing these…
High-precision spectrophotometry is highly desirable in detecting and characterizing close-in extrasolar planets to learn about their makeup and temperature. For such a goal, a modest-size telescope with a simple low-resolution…
Localization microscopy is an imaging technique in which the positions of individual nanoscale point emitters (e.g. fluorescent molecules) are determined at high precision from their images. This is the key ingredient in…
Astrometric detection and mass determination of Earth-mass exoplanets requires sub-microarcsec accuracy, which is theoretically possible with an imaging space telescope using field stars as an astrometric reference. The measurement must…
We present results of numerical simulations of the flux (irradiance), F, and the degree of polarization (i.e. the ratio of polarized to total flux), P, of light that is reflected by Earth-like extrasolar planets orbiting solar-type stars,…
Stellar spots may in some cases produce radial velocity (RV) signatures similar to those of exoplanets. To further investigate the impact of spots, we aim at studying the detectability of Earth mass planets in the habitable zone (HZ) of…
Direct imaging and spectroscopy is the likely means by which we will someday identify, confirm, and characterize an Earth-like planet around a nearby Sun-like star. This Chapter summarizes the current state of knowledge regarding…
Point Spread Function (PSF) engineering is used in single emitter localization to measure the emitter position in 3D and possibly other parameters such as the emission color or dipole orientation as well. Advanced PSF models such as spline…
Adaptive optics (AO) restore the angular resolution of ground-based telescopes, but at the cost of delivering a time- and space-varying point spread function (PSF) with a complex shape. PSF knowledge is crucial for breaking existing limits…
Transmission spectroscopy during planetary transits is expected to be a major source of information on the atmospheres of small (approximately Earth-sized) exoplanets in the next two decades. This technique, however, is intrinsically…
The Swedish 1-m Solar Telescope (SST) offers excellent imaging quality, but it has a comparatively small field of view. This means that while observing the solar photosphere, there has been no convenient way of calibrating the image scale…
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…
In the last years, the Observatory of Padova (Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica - Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova) and the University of Padova have been involved massively in projects dedicated to the exoplanets search, both ground, and…
Microlensing offers a unique opportunity to probe exoplanets that are temperate and beyond the snow line, as small as Jovian satellites, at extragalactic distance, and even free floating exoplanets, regimes where the sensitivity of other…
PolStar is an Explorer-class far ultraviolet (FUV) spectropolarimetry mission designed to target massive stars and their environments. PolStar will take advantage of resonance lines only available in the FUV to measure for the first time…
The past five years have seen a rapid rise in the use of tunable filters in many diverse fields of astronomy, through Taurus Tunable Filter (TTF) instruments at the Anglo-Australian and William Herschel Telescopes. Over this time we have…
The newly commissioned Gemini Planet Imager (GPI) combines extreme adaptive optics, an advanced coronagraph, precision wavefront control and a lenslet-based integral field spectrograph (IFS) to measure the spectra of young extrasolar giant…
A main science goal for the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) is to measure the cosmic shear signal from weak lensing to extreme accuracy. One difficulty, however, is that with the short exposure time ($\simeq$15 seconds) proposed, the…