Related papers: Rounding up the wanderers: optimizing coronagraphi…
Transits of bright stars offer a unique opportunity to study detailed properties of extrasolar planets that cannot be determined through radial-velocity observations. We propose a new technique to find such systems using all-sky…
Targeted spectroscopic exoplanet surveys face the challenge of maximizing their planet detection rates by means of careful planning. The number of possible observation combinations for a large exoplanet survey, i.e., the sequence of…
With dedicated exoplanet surveys underway for multiple extreme precision radial velocity (EPRV) instruments, the near-future prospects of RV exoplanet science are promising. These surveys' generous time allocations are expected to…
Exozodiacal dust, warm debris from comets and asteroids in and near the habitable zone of stellar systems, reveals the physical processes that shape planetary systems. Scattered light from this dust is also a source of background flux which…
We investigate the possiblity to detect Earth-like planets, in the visible and the near infrared domains, with ground based Extremely Large Telescopes equipped with adaptive systems capable of providing high Strehl ratios. From a detailed…
Reflected starlight measurements will open a new path in the characterization of directly imaged exoplanets. However, we still lack a population study of known targets amenable to this technique. Here, we investigate which of the about 4300…
The Microlensing Planet Finder (MPF) is a proposed Discovery mission that will complete the first census of extrasolar planets with sensitivity to planets like those in our own solar system. MPF will employ a 1.1m aperture telescope, which…
Imaging of planets is very difficult, due to the glare from their nearby, much brighter suns. Static and slowly-evolving aberrations are the limiting factors, even after application of adaptive optics. The residual speckle pattern is highly…
Exoplanetary science is a very active field of astronomy nowadays, with questions still opened such as how planetary systems form and evolve (occurrence, process), why such a diversity of exoplanets is observed (mass, radius, orbital…
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…
Due to their extremely small luminosity compared to the stars they orbit, planets outside our own Solar System are extraordinarily difficult to detect directly in optical light. Careful photometric monitoring of distant stars, however, can…
To understand the frequency, and thus the formation and evolution, of planetary systems like our own solar system, it is critical to detect Jupiter-like planets in Jupiter-like orbits. For long-term radial-velocity monitoring, it is useful…
We evaluate the direct detection of extrasolar giant planets with a two-aperture nulling infrared interferometer, working at angles ${\theta}<{\lambda}/2B$, and using a new `ratio-of-two-wavelengths' technique. Simple arguments suggest that…
The addition of an external starshade to the {\it Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope} will enable the direct imaging of Earth-radius planets orbiting at $\sim$1 AU. Classification of any detected planets as Earth-like requires both…
This paper reports a blind search for magnetospheric emissions from planets around nearby stars. Young stars are likely to have much stronger stellar winds than the Sun, and because planetary magnetospheric emissions are powered by stellar…
A next generation of space-based observatories aims to detect and characterize potentially Earth-like exoplanets around Sun-like stars using reflected light spectroscopy. However, it remains unclear how such direct imaging…
This report summarizes the current status of efforts to develop the technologies required for coronographic space missions aimed at the detection of terrestrial extrasolar planets.
Among the group of extrasolar planets, transiting planets provide a great opportunity to obtain direct measurements for the basic physical properties, such as mass and radius of these objects. These planets are therefore highly important in…
In order to directly image an extrasolar planet, the large contrast between a star and a companion planet must be overcome. White Dwarfs (WDs) are the remnants of stars > 1 M_sun and are orders of magnitude dimmer, making searches for…
The Habitable Exoplanet Imaging Mission (HabEx) concept requires an optical coronagraph that provides deep starlight suppression over a broad spectral bandwidth, high throughput for point sources at small angular separation, and…