Related papers: A Statistical Framework for Utilization of Simulta…
Exoplanetary transit and stellar oscillation surveys require a very high precision photometry. The instrumental noise has therefore to be minimized. First, we perform a semi-analytical model of different noise sources. We show that the…
The capability of maintaining two satellites in precise relative position, stable in a celestial coordinate system, would enable major advances in a number of scientific disciplines and with a variety of types of instrumentation. The common…
This study presents a comprehensive end-to-end simulation analysis of the optical imaging performance of the China Survey Space Telescope (CSST) under in-orbit conditions. An integrated system model incorporating five static and two dynamic…
High-contrast imaging provided by a coronagraph is critical for the direction imaging of the Earth-like planet orbiting its bright parent star. A major limitation for such direct imaging is the speckle noise that is induced from the…
We present a segment-level wavefront stability error budget for space telescopes essential for exoplanet detection. We use a detailed finite element model to relate the temperature gradient at the location of the primary mirror to wavefront…
Direct imaging of exoplanets is crucial for advancing our understanding of planetary systems beyond our solar system, but it faces significant challenges due to the high contrast between host stars and their planets. Wavefront aberrations…
Residual wavefront errors in optical elements limit the performance of coronagraphs. To improve their efficiency, different types of devices have been proposed to correct or calibrate these errors. In this paper, we study one of these…
Optical imperfections, misalignments, aberrations, and even dust can significantly limit sensitivity in high-contrast imaging systems such as coronagraphs. An upstream deformable mirror (DM) in the pupil can be used to correct or compensate…
Uncertainty in the wide-angle Point Spread Function (PSF) at large angles (tens of arcseconds and beyond) is one of the dominant sources of error in a number of important quantities in observational astronomy. Examples include the stellar…
Exoplanet detection by direct imaging is a difficult task: the faint signals from the objects of interest are buried under a spatially structured nuisance component induced by the host star. The exoplanet signals can only be identified when…
The shape of a focus-modulated point spread function (PSF) is used as a quick visual assessment tool of aberration modes in the PSF. Further analysis in terms of shape moments can permit quantifying the modal coefficients with an accuracy…
Differentiating between an exoplanet signal and residual speckle noise is a key challenge in high-contrast imaging. Speckles are due to a combination of fast, slow and static wavefront aberrations introduced by atmospheric turbulence and…
Wavefront shaping is a technique for directing light through turbid media. The theoretical aspects of wavefront shaping are well understood, and under near-ideal experimental conditions, accurate predictions for the expected signal…
Exoplanetary science is a very active field of astronomy nowadays, with questions still opened such as how planetary systems form and evolve (occurrence, process), why such a diversity of exoplanets is observed (mass, radius, orbital…
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…
Focal plane wavefront sensing is an elegant solution for wavefront sensing since near-focal images of any source taken by a detector show distortions in the presence of aberrations. Non-Common Path Aberrations and the Low Wind Effect both…
WFIRST will conduct a coronagraphic program of characterizing the atmospheres of planets around bright nearby stars. When observed with the WFIRST Wide Field Camera, these stars will saturate the detector and produce very strong diffraction…
Direct detection is a very promising field in exoplanet science. It allows the detection of companions with large separation and allows their spectral analysis. A few planets have already been detected and are under spectral analysis. But…
The Wide Field Camera 3 is one of the instruments currently onboard the Hubble Space Telescope and, since 2012, with the use of the spatial scanning technique, has provided the largest number of observed exoplanetary atmosphere, ranging…
Space-based coronagraphs for future earth-like planet detection will require focal plane wavefront control techniques to achieve the necessary contrast levels. These correction algorithms are iterative and the control methods require an…