Related papers: WaveDriver: a Laser Guide Star AO System for HWO

The Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) aims to telescopically constrain the frequency and abundance of biospheres in the solar neighborhood. Origin-of-life theories vary in their predictions for the environmental requirements and the…

The direct imaging of an Earth-like exoplanet will require sub-nanometric wavefront control across large light-collecting apertures, to reject host starlight and detect the faint planetary signal. Current adaptive optics (AO) systems, which…

An Adaptive secondary mirror (ASM) allows for the integration of adaptive optics (AO) into the telescope itself. Adaptive secondary mirrors, based on hybrid variable reluctance (HVR) actuator technology, developed by TNO, provide a…

We demonstrate the potential of new adaptive optical technology to expand the detection horizon of gravitational-wave observatories. Achieving greater quantum-noise-limited sensitivity to spacetime strain hinges on achieving higher…

There are scientific and technological needs to improve the co-phasing of the primary mirrors of segmented telescopes. We have developed a methodology for using the wavefront sensor of an adaptive optics (AO) system to disentangle the phase…

A new wavefront sensing approach, derived from the successful curvature wavefront sensing concept but using a non-linear phase retrieval wavefront reconstruction scheme, is described. The non-linear curvature wavefront sensor (nlCWFS)…

For natural guide start adaptive optics (AO) systems, pyramid wavefront sensors (PWFSs) can provide significant increase in sensitivity over the traditional Shack-Hartmann, but at the cost of a reduced linear range. When using a linear…

Low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite constellations are emerging as a key enabler of next-generation communications, offering global coverage and significantly lower latency compared to traditional terrestrial networks and geostationary…

The search for life beyond the Solar System remains a primary goal of current and near-future missions, including NASA's upcoming Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO). However, research into determining the habitability of terrestrial…

The full LINC-NIRVANA instrument will be one of the most complex ground-based astronomical systems ever built. It will consist of multiple subsystems, including two multi-conjugate ground layer AO systems (MCAO) that drive the LBT adaptive…

Will future direct imaging missions such as NASA's upcoming Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) be able to understand Earth-sized planets as a population? In this study, we simulate the ability of space-based coronagraphy missions to uncover…

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…

The Decadal Survey on Astronomy and Astrophysics 2020 highlights the importance of advancing research focused on discovering and characterizing habitable worlds. In line with this priority, our goal is to investigate how planetary systems…

Adaptive optics systems are an essential technology for the modern astronomy for ground based telescopes. One of the most recent revolution in the field is the introduction of the pyramid wavefront sensor. The higher performance of this…

Adaptive optics (AO) is a key technology for ground-based optical and infrared astronomy, providing high angular resolution and sensitivity. AO systems employing laser guide stars (LGS) can achieve high sky coverage, but their performance…

In astronomy and microscopy, distortions in the wavefront affect the dynamic range of a high contrast imaging system. These aberrations are either imposed by a turbulent medium such as the atmosphere, by static or thermal aberrations in the…

The search for exoplanets is pushing adaptive optics systems on ground-based telescopes to their limits. Currently, we are limited by two sources of noise: the temporal control error and non-common path aberrations. First, the temporal…

We study for the first time a three-dimensional octahedron constellation for a space-based gravitational wave detector, which we call the Octahedral Gravitational Observatory (OGO). With six spacecraft the constellation is able to remove…

Many established vision perception systems for autonomous driving scenarios ignore the influence of light conditions, one of the key elements for driving safety. To address this problem, we present HawkDrive, a novel perception system with…

The success of ground-based instruments for high contrast exoplanet imaging depends on the degree to which adaptive optics (AO) systems can mitigate atmospheric turbulence. While modern AO systems typically suffer from millisecond time lags…