Related papers: Kernel-nulling for a robust direct interferometric…
The Photonic Lantern Nuller (PLN) is an instrument concept designed to characterize exoplanets within a single beam-width from its host star. The PLN leverages the spatial symmetry of a mode-selective photonic lantern (MSPL) to create…
At optical wavelengths, an exoplanet's signature is essentially reflected light from the host star - several orders of magnitude fainter. Since it is superimposed on the star spectrum its detection has been a difficult observational…
In this white paper, we propose an upgrade to the Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) consisting of the addition of a new 8m Unit Telescope (UT5). The primary goal of this upgrade is to optimise the VLTI for exoplanet detection by…
Exoplanet research is essential for understanding planetary formation and the potential for life beyond our solar system. The direct imaging method captures exoplanet light while minimizing light from the host star. This is conventionally…
We present here a new observational technique, Phase Closure Nulling (PCN), which has the potential to obtain very high contrast detection and spectroscopy of faint companions to bright stars. PCN consists in measuring closure phases of…
The Keck Planet Imager and Characterizer (KPIC) is an upgrade to the Keck II adaptive optics system that includes an active fiber injection unit (FIU) for efficiently routing light from exoplanets to NIRSPEC, a high-resolution spectrograph.…
The characterization of extrasolar earth-like atmospheres for biosignatures remains one of the most compelling and elusive challenges in astronomy. Coronagraphy, nulling interferometry and free-flying occulters have been advanced as…
The detection of exoplanets with the radial velocity method consists in detecting variations of the stellar velocity caused by an unseen sub-stellar companion. Instrumental errors, irregular time sampling, and different noise sources…
Microlensing is a proven extrasolar planet search method that has already yielded the detection of four exoplanets. These detections have changed our understanding of planet formation ``beyond the snowline'' by demonstrating that…
Herein is discussed the performance of spaceborne nulling interferometers searching for extra-solar planets, in terms of their extinction maps projected on-sky. In particular, it is shown that the designs of Spatial Filtering (SF) and…
The challenge for optical detection of terrestial planet is the 25 magnitude brightness contrast between the planet and its host star. This paper introduces a new pupil design that produces a very dark null along its symmetry axis. By…
Asgard/NOTT is an ERC-funded project hosted at KU Leuven and is part of a new visitor instrumental suite, called Asgard, under preparation for the Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI). Leveraging nulling capabilities and the long VLTI…
Characterising the circumstellar dust around nearby main sequence stars is a necessary step in understanding the planetary formation process and is crucial for future life-finding space missions such as ESA's Darwin or NASA's Terrestrial…
Seismic structure inversions have been used to study the solar interior for decades. With the high-precision frequencies obtained using data from the Kepler mission, it has now become possible to study other solar-like oscillators using…
Space borne nulling interferometry in the mid-infrared waveband is one of the most promising techniques for characterizing the atmospheres of extra-solar planets orbiting in the habitable zone of their parent star, and possibly discovering…
Direct imaging characterization of extrasolar planets is often done at low spectral resolution. We model the spectrograph for the Gemini Planet Imager upgrade (GPI 2.0) and assess the instrument's potential for allowing observers to…
Despite numerous search campaigns based on a diverse set of observational techniques, exomoons - prospective satellites of extrasolar planets - remain an elusive and hard-to-pin-down class of objects. Yet, the case for intensifying this…
Radio wavelength astrometry of stars and other objects has a long and productive history. The use of that technique to determine whether stars have planets around them would cover a nearly unique part of the parameter space for detection of…
The direct detection of exoplanets with high-contrast instruments can be boosted with high spectral resolution. For integral field spectrographs yielding hyperspectral data, this means that the field of view consists of diffracted starlight…
Current anomaly detection algorithms are typically challenged by either accuracy or efficiency. More accurate nonlinear detectors are typically slow and not scalable. In this letter, we propose two families of techniques to improve the…