Related papers: MagAO-X: current status and plans for Phase II

In this paper, we present the design and the expected performance of the classical Lyot coronagraph for the high contrast imaging modes of the wide-field imager MICADO. MICADO is a near-IR camera for the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT,…

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…

Multi-Conjugate Adaptive Optics (MCAO) combines the advantages of standard adaptive optics, which provides high contrast and high spatial resolution, and of wide field ~1' imaging. Up to recently, MCAO for astronomy was limited to…

SAXO+ is a planned enhancement of the existing SAXO, the VLT/ SPHERE adaptive optics system, deployed on ESO's Very Large Telescope. This upgrade is designed to significantly enhance the instrument's capacity to detect and analyze young…

Axion helioscopes like the planned International Axion Observatory (IAXO) search for evidence of axions and axion-like particles (ALPs) from the Sun. A strong magnetic field is used to convert ALPs into photons via the generic ALP-photon…

We plan to take advantage of the unprecedented combination of low thermal background and high resolution provided by the 6.5m MMT's adaptive secondary mirror, to target the 3-5 micron atmospheric window where giant planets are expected to…

A high contrast coronagraph is expected to provide one of the promising ways to directly observe extra-solar planets. We present the newest results of our laboratory experiment investigating "rigid" coronagraph with a binary shaped…

(abridged) Extreme adaptive optics (XAO) encounters severe difficulties to cope with the high speed (>1kHz), high accuracy and high order requirements for future extremely large telescopes. An innovative high order adaptive optics system…

High contrast imaging of extrasolar planets and circumstellar disks requires extreme wavefront stability. Such stability can be achieved with active wavefront control (WFC). The next generation of ground- and space-based telescopes will…

This article describes BabyIAXO, an intermediate experimental stage of the International Axion Observatory (IAXO), proposed to be sited at DESY. IAXO is a large-scale axion helioscope that will look for axions and axion-like particles…

Imaging terrestrial exoplanets around nearby stars is a formidable technical challenge, requiring the development of coronagraphs to suppress the stellar halo of diffracted light at the location of the planet. In this review, we derive the…

Integral field spectrographs are major instruments to study the mechanisms involved in the formation and the evolution of early galaxies. When combined with multi-object spectroscopy, those spectrographs can behave as machines used to…

The search for exoplanets is pushing adaptive optics systems on ground-based telescopes to their limits. One of the major limitations at small angular separations, exactly where exoplanets are predicted to be, is the servo-lag of the…

Directly imaging Earth-like exoplanets (``exoEarths'') with a coronagraph instrument on a space telescope requires a stable wavefront with optical path differences limited to tens of picometers RMS during exposure times of a few hours.…

The discovery of the exoplanet Proxima b highlights the potential for the coming generation of giant segmented mirror telescopes (GSMTs) to characterize terrestrial --- potentially habitable --- planets orbiting nearby stars with direct…

We report adaptive-optics (AO) follow-up imaging of OGLE-2014-BLG-1050, which is the second binary microlensing event with space-based parallax measurements. The degeneracy in microlens parallax pi_E led to two sets of solutions, either a…

Ground-based high contrast exoplanet imaging requires state-of-the-art adaptive optics (AO) systems in order to detect extremely faint planets next to their brighter host stars. For such extreme AO systems (with high actuator count…

The ATHENA X-ray Observatory-IXO is a planned multinational orbiting X-ray observatory with a focal length of 11.5m. ATHENA aims to perform pointed observations in an energy range from 0.1 keV to 15 keV with high sensitivity. For high…

Multi-conjugated adaptive optics (MCAO) yield nearly diffraction-limited images at 2$\mu$m wavelengths. Currently, GeMS/GSAOI at Gemini South is the only MCAO facility instrument at an 8m telescope. Using real data and for the first time,…

The Gemini Observatory is planning to implement a Multi Conjugate Adaptive Optics (MCAO) System as a facility instrument for the Gemini-South telescope. The system will include 5 Laser Guide Stars, 3 Natural Guide Stars, and 3 Deformable…