Related papers: Observing inside the coronagraphic regime with opt…
Understanding exoplanet formation and finding potentially habitable exoplanets is vital to an enhanced understanding of the universe. The use of nulling interferometry to strongly attenuate the central starlight provides the opportunity to…
Imaging exo-Earths is an exciting but challenging task because of the 10^-10 contrast ratio between these planets and their host star at separations narrower than 100 mas. Large segmented aperture space telescopes enable the sensitivity…
Specific high contrast imaging instruments are mandatory to characterize circumstellar disks and exoplanets around nearby stars. Coronagraphs are commonly used in these facilities to reject the diffracted light of an observed star and…
High-dynamic range imaging from space in the visible, aiming in particular at the detection of terrestrial exoplanets, necessitates not only the use of a coronagraph, but also of adaptive optics to correct optical defects in real time.…
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.…
High-contrast coronagraphy will be needed to image and characterize faint extra-solar planetary systems. Coronagraphy is a rapidly evolving field, and many enhanced alternatives to the classical Lyot coronagraph have been proposed in the…
Using 2 aspheric mirrors, it is possible to apodize a telescope beam without losing light or angular resolution: the output beam is produced by ``remapping'' the entrance beam to produce the desired light intensity distribution in a new…
Using an optical vortex coronagraph and simple adaptive optics techniques we have made the first convincing demonstration of an optical vortex coronagraph that is coupled to a star gazing telescope. In particular we suppressed by 97% the…
Kernel phase interferometry is an approach to high angular resolution imaging which enhances the performance of speckle imaging with adaptive optics. Kernel phases are self-calibrating observables that generalize the idea of closure phases…
Context. Proxima Cen b is the prime target for the search of life around a nearby exoplanet by characterizing its atmosphere in reflected light. Due to the very high star/companion contrast (<1E-6), High Dispersion Coronagraphy is the most…
Future space telescope coronagraph instruments hinge on the integration of high-performance masks and precise wavefront sensing and control techniques to create dark holes essential for exoplanet detection. Recent advancements in wavefront…
The Roman Space Telescope will have the first advanced coronagraph in space, with deformable mirrors for wavefront control, low-order wavefront sensing and maintenance, and a photon-counting detector. It is expected to be able to detect and…
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 vortex coronagraph is an optical instrument that precisely removes on-axis starlight allowing for high contrast imaging at small angular separation from the star, thereby providing a crucial capability for direct detection and…
Diffraction fundamentally limits our ability to image and characterize exoplanets. Current and planned coronagraphic searches for exoplanets are making incredible strides but are fundamentally limited by the inner working angle of a few…
High-contrast imaging observations of large angular diameter stars enable complementary science questions to be addressed compared to the baseline goals of proposed missions like the Terrestrial Planet Finder-Coronagraph, New World's…
Second-generation exoplanet imagers using extreme adaptive optics and coronagraphy have demonstrated their great potential for studying close circumstellar environments and for detecting new companions and helping to understand their…
One of the biggest challenges associated with a nulling interferometer-based approach to detecting extra-solar Earth-like planets comes from the extremely stringent requirements of pathlength, polarization and amplitude matching in the…
An optical vortex coronagraph has been implemented within the NIRC2 camera on the Keck II telescope and used to carry out on-sky tests and observations. The development of this new L'-band observational mode is described, and an initial…
High contrast imaging is the primary path to the direct detection and characterization of Earth-like planets around solar-type stars; a cleverly designed internal coronagraph suppresses the light from the star, revealing the elusive…