Related papers: Laboratory characterisation bench for high precisi…
Direct imaging of exoplanets requires the detection of very faint objects orbiting close to very bright stars. In this context, the SPICES mission was proposed to the European Space Agency for planet characterization at visible wavelength.…
The Shear TEsting Programme (STEP) is a collaborative project to improve the accuracy and reliability of weak lensing measurement, in preparation for the next generation of wide-field surveys. We review sixteen current and emerging shear…
We propose a new concept for spectral characterization of transiting exoplanets with future space-based telescopes. This concept, called as densified pupil spectroscopy, allows us to perform high, stable spectrophotometry against telescope…
Laser frequency combs (LFCs) are well on their way to becoming the next-generation calibration sources for precision astronomical spectroscopy. This development is considered key in the hunt for low-mass rocky exoplanets around solar-type…
Starting in 2008, NASA has provided the exoplanet community an observational program aimed at obtaining the highest resolution imaging available as part of its mission to validate and characterize exoplanets, as well as their stellar…
The new generation of deep photometric surveys requires unprecedentedly precise shape and photometry measurements of billions of galaxies to achieve their main science goals. At such depths, one major limiting factor is the blending of…
DEPFET pixel detectors are unique devices in terms of energy and spatial resolution because very low noise (ENC = 2.2e at room temperature) operation can be obtained by implementing the amplifying transistor in the pixel cell itself. Full…
We present a new high-contrast imaging testbed designed to provide complete solutions in wavefront sensing, control and starlight suppression with complex aperture telescopes. The testbed was designed to enable a wide range of studies of…
Astronomers working with faint targets will benefit greatly from improved image quality on current and planned ground-based telescopes. At present, most adaptive optic systems are targeted at the highest resolution with bright guide stars.…
We present the photometric calibration of the HST Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS). We give here an overview of the performance and calibration of the 2 CCD cameras, the Wide Field Channel (WFC) and the High Resolution Channel (HRC), and a…
The Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) and its metrology chain have to fulfill stringent performance requirements to enable the space-based detection of gravitational waves. This implies the necessity of performance verification…
Multiple instruments are pursuing constraints on dark energy, observing reionization and opening a window on the dark ages through the detection and characterization of the 21cm hydrogen line across the redshift spectrum, from nearby to…
Space-based gamma-ray telescopes such as the Fermi Large Area Telescope have used single sided silicon strip detectors to measure the position of charged particles produced by incident gamma rays with high resolution. At energies in the…
We propose an experiment, the Cosmic Accelerometer, designed to yield velocity precision of $\leq 1$ cm/s with measurement stability over years to decades. The first-phase Cosmic Accelerometer, which is at the scale of the Astro2020 Small…
SCALES (Slicer Combined with Array of Lenslets for Exoplanet Spectroscopy) is a 2 - 5 micron high-contrast lenslet-based integral field spectrograph (IFS) designed to characterize exoplanets and their atmospheres. The SCALES…
Accurate photometric redshifts are among the key requirements for precision weak lensing measurements. Both the large size of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and the existence of large spectroscopic redshift samples that are…
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…
The direct detection of exoplanets has been the subject of intensive research in the recent years. Data obtained with future high-contrast imaging instruments optimized for giant planets direct detection are strongly limited by the speckle…
The High Contrast spectroscopy testbed for Segmented Telescopes (HCST) is being developed at Caltech. It aims at addressing the technology gap for future exoplanet imagers and providing the U.S. community with an academic facility to test…
The final performance of current and future instruments dedicated to exoplanet detection and characterization (such as SPHERE on the European Very Large Telescope, GPI on Gemini North, or future instruments on Extremely Large Telescopes) is…