A Solar Mid-Infrared Telescope

Abstract

We developed a mid infrared (MIR) solar telescope, centered at 10 µm. Various optical layouts were analyzed based on computer simulations and a RitcheyChretien 6-inches telescope was selected with a plate scale of 2.5′′/mm using a pyroelectric 4 × 16 pixels detector. The angular resolution is 36′′/pixel with a field of view of 9.6′×2.4′. Two germanium filters are used, one at the aperture of thetelescope and another near its focal plane. The detector was characterized with alaboratory black-body. The count values follow a linear relation with the blackbody temperature. The control systems for both the telescope and the detectorwere developed. Proper mechanical supports were designed for the filters, detectorand electronics. The system has been integrated and a user interface was developed. Preliminary observations have been made giving a signal-to-noise ratio of ≈ 1000.

The Climates of Other Worlds: A Review of the Emerging Field of Exoplanet Climatology∗

“…The effect on surface habitability of the gravitational interactions that can occur in multiple-planet systems has been explored using constraints from n-body models as inputs to GCMs for the first time, with a study of the effect of orbital configuration on the requirements for open water on the potentially habitable planet Kepler-62f, for a range of high-and low-CO 2 cases and for different rotation periods ( Figure 10; Shields et al 2016). And in parallel, GCMs have been used to explore planets with likely climates that are very different from the Earth, including planets in the Jupiter-mass regime orbiting close in to their stars (so-called "Hot Jupiters"; see, e.g., Showman et al 2008aShowman et al , 2008bShowman et al , 2009Menou & Rauscher 2009;Fortney et al 2010;Rauscher & Menou 2010;Amundsen et al 2014Amundsen et al , 2016Mayne et al 2014;Kataria et al 2015;Jiménez-Torres 2016;Roman & Rauscher 2017, the warm sub-Neptune GJ1214b (Charnay et al 2015b(Charnay et al , 2015c, and the potential Venus analog Kepler-1649b (Kane et al 2018). All told, these targeted planet case studies have brought to light the wide variety of conditions that might exist outside of the solar system.…”