Related papers: Characterization of a multi-etalon array for ultra…
Since the first discovery of an extra-solar planet around a main-sequence star, in 1995, the number of detected exoplanets has increased enormously. Over the past two decades, observational instruments (both onboard and on ground-based…
The detection and characterisation of extra-solar planets is a major theme driving modern astronomy, with the vast majority of such measurements being achieved by Doppler radial-velocity and transit observations. Another technique -- direct…
The high spatial and spectral resolution offered by the new generation of infrared spectrometers at ESO is optimally suited for the observational study of outflows from young stellar objects. Models of interstellar shock waves would benefit…
While high-resolution cross-correlation spectroscopy (HRCCS) techniques have proven effective at characterizing the atmospheres of transiting and non-transiting hot Jupiters, the limitations of these techniques are not well understood. We…
Although the extra-solar planets discovered so far are of the giant, gaseous, type, the increased sensitivity of future surveys will result in the discovery of lower mass planets. The detection of O2 in the atmosphere of a rocky extra-solar…
An optical etalon illuminated by a white light source provides a broadband comb-like spectrum that can be employed as a calibration source for astronomical spectrographs in radial velocity (RV) surveys for extrasolar planets. For this…
Adaptive optics (AO) have been used to correct wavefronts to achieve diffraction limited point spread functions in a broad range of optical applications, prominently ground-based astronomical telescopes operating in near infra-red. While…
Lucky Imaging combined with a low order adaptive optics system has given the highest resolution images ever taken in the visible or near infrared of faint astronomical objects. This paper describes a new instrument that has already been…
Recent progress in high-resolution transmission spectroscopy has offered new avenues in which to characterise the atmospheres of transiting exoplanets. High-resolution cross-correlation spectroscopy allows for the unambiguous detection of…
This paper presents the optical design of a multi-spectral piston sensor suitable to co-phasing giant segmented mirrors equipping the Future Extremely Large Telescopes (ELTs). The general theory of the sensor is described in detail and…
The next generation of solar telescopes will enable us to resolve the fundamental scales of the solar atmosphere, i.e., the pressure scale height and the photon mean free path. High-resolution observations of small-scale structures with…
Aberration-corrected optics have made electron microscopy at atomic-resolution a widespread and often essential tool for nanocharacterization. Image resolution is dominated by beam energy and the numerical aperture of the lens ({\alpha}),…
Context: During the past years photometric surveys, later complemented by follow-up radial-velocity measurements, have revealed the presence of several new extra-solar transiting planets, in very short period orbits. Many of the host stars…
Direct imaging spectroscopy with future space-based telescopes will constrain terrestrial planet atmospheric composition and potentially detect biosignature gases. One promising indication of life is abundant atmospheric O2. However,…
We have obtained deep Adaptive Optics (AO) images of Vega and epsilon Eri to search for planetary-mass companions. We observed at the MMT in the L' (3.8 micron) and M (4.8 micron) bands using Clio, a recently commissioned imager optimized…
In recent years, high-resolution transmission spectroscopy in the near-infrared has led to detections of prominent molecules in several giant exoplanets on close-in orbits. This approach has traditionally relied on the large Doppler shifts…
A new generation of low frequency radio telescopes is seeking to observe the redshifted 21 cm signal from the Epoch of Reionization (EoR), requiring innovative methods of calibration and imaging to overcome the difficulties of widefield low…
The high beam current and sub-angstrom resolution of aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscopes has enabled electron energy loss spectroscopic (EELS) mapping with atomic resolution. These spectral maps are often…
Imaging spectropolarimetry is an important observational tool in solar physics because of fast-cadence spectral scans with high-spectral resolution, large field-of-view, and its inherent suitability for post-facto image restoration.…
Direct imaging of exoplanets presents a formidable technical challenge owing to the small angular separation and high contrast between exoplanets and their host stars. High Dispersion Coronagraphy (HDC) is a pathway to achieve unprecedented…