Survey of experimental results in high-contrast imaging for future exoplanet missions

Lawson, Peter R.; Belikov, Ruslan; Cash, Webster; Clampin, Mark; Glassman, Tiffany; Guyon, Olivier; Kasdin, N. Jeremy; Kern, Brian; Lyon, Richard G.; Mawet, Dimitri; Moody, Dwight; Samuele, Rocco; Serabyn, Eugene; Sirbu, Dan; Trauger, John T.

doi:10.1117/12.2021302

Cited by 14 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…Techniques have been developed using deformable mirror technologies to cancel out the residual speckles and create the darkest holes possible (e.g. Oppenheimer and Hinkley, 2009; Traub and Oppenheimer, 2010; Lawson et al ., 2013). The best achieved contrast in fairly recent laboratory experiments is raw contrast of 10 −8 , bandwidth 10%, at a central wavelength of 550 nm (Traub et al ., 2016).…”

Section: Observational Methods and Strategies For The Detection Of Hamentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of space weather on climate and habitability of terrestrial-type exoplanets

Airapetian

Barnes

Cohen

et al. 2019

International Journal of Astrobiology

193

141

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The search for life in the Universe is a fundamental problem of astrobiology and modern science. The current progress in the detection of terrestrial-type exoplanets has opened a new avenue in the characterization of exoplanetary atmospheres and in the search for biosignatures of life with the upcoming ground-based and space missions. To specify the conditions favourable for the origin, development and sustainment of life as we know it in other worlds, we need to understand the nature of global (astrospheric), and local (atmospheric and surface) environments of exoplanets in the habitable zones (HZs) around G-K-M dwarf stars including our young Sun. Global environment is formed by propagated disturbances from the planet-hosting stars in the form of stellar flares, coronal mass ejections, energetic particles and winds collectively known as astrospheric space weather. Its characterization will help in understanding how an exoplanetary ecosystem interacts with its host star, as well as in the specification of the physical, chemical and biochemical conditions that can create favourable and/or detrimental conditions for planetary climate and habitability along with evolution of planetary internal dynamics over geological timescales. A key linkage of (astro)physical, chemical and geological processes can only be understood in the framework of interdisciplinary studies with the incorporation of progress in heliophysics, astrophysics, planetary and Earth sciences. The assessment of the impacts of host stars on the climate and habitability of terrestrial (exo)planets will significantly expand the current definition of the HZ to the biogenic zone and provide new observational strategies for searching for signatures of life. The major goal of this paper is to describe and discuss the current status and recent progress in this interdisciplinary field in light of presentations and discussions during the NASA Nexus for Exoplanetary System Science funded workshop ‘Exoplanetary Space Weather, Climate and Habitability’ and to provide a new roadmap for the future development of the emerging field of exoplanetary science and astrobiology.

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Section: Observational Methods and Strategies For The Detection Of Hamentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of space weather on climate and habitability of terrestrial-type exoplanets

Airapetian

Barnes

Cohen

et al. 2019

International Journal of Astrobiology

193

141

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…The blue circle labeled as "ACE/LM (2014)" represents the performance (in monochromatic light) described here. The point labeled as "HCIT2 (2014)" represents performance achieved with a coronagraph at NASA JPL High Contrast Imaging Testbed 2 (HCIT2) with a PIAA coronagraph [12] (a collaboration we are part of outside the scope of EXCEDE). These two efforts push performance in two complementary directions as shown by black arrows: improving inner working angle is more significant for small telescopes which may not benefit from very deep contrasts because they would require very long integration times, and where aggressive inner working angle help mitigate their small size.…”

Section: Significance and Context Of Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

EXCEDE technology development III: first vacuum tests

Belikov¹,

Lozi²,

Pluzhnik³

et al. 2014

SPIE Proceedings

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This paper is the third in the series on the technology development for the EXCEDE (EXoplanetary Circumstellar Environments and Disk Explorer) mission concept, which in 2011 was selected by NASA's Explorer program for technology development (Category III). EXCEDE is a 0.7m space telescope concept designed to achieve raw contrasts of 1e6 at an inner working angle of 1.2 l/D and 1e7 at 2 l/D and beyond. This will allow it to directly detect and spatially resolve low surface brightness circumstellar debris disks as well as image giant planets as close as in the habitable zones of their host stars. In addition to doing fundamental science on debris disks, EXCEDE will also serve as a technological and scientific precursor for any future exo-Earth imaging mission. EXCEDE uses a Starlight Suppression System (SSS) based on the PIAA coronagraph, enabling aggressive performance.Previously, we reported on the achievement of our first milestone (demonstration of EXCEDE IWA and contrast in monochromatic light) in air. In this paper, we report on our continuing progress of developing the SSS for EXCEDE, and in particular (a) the reconfiguration of our system into a more flight-like layout, with an upstream deformable mirror and an inverse PIAA system, as well as a LOWFS, and (b) testing this system in a vacuum chamber, including IWA, contrast, and stability performance. The results achieved so far are 2.9e-7 contrast between 1.2-2.0 l/D and 9.7e-8 contrast between 2.0-6.0 l/D in monochromatic light; as well as 1.4e-6 between 2.0-6.0 l/D in a 10% band, all with a PIAA coronagraph operating at an inner working angle of 1.2 l/D. This constitutes better contrast than EXCEDE requirements (in those regions) in monochromatic light, and progress towards requirements in broadband light. Even though this technology development is primarily targeted towards EXCEDE, it is also germane to any exoplanet direct imaging space-based telescopes because of the many challenges common to different coronagraph architectures and mission requirements.

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“…While this level of suppression may be sufficient for future extremely large ground-based telescopes with significant post-processing of the data [53], the most likely, and efficient, means of characterizing exoplanets is with space telescopes. The extreme level of starlight suppression will be achieved using an optical occulter, either in the form of an external starshade [54][55][56] or an internal coronagraph [57][58][59]. The direct light from a star is blocked by the starshade by minimizing the diffraction pattern in the region of the telescope's aperture.…”

Section: Uv/optical/ir Sciencementioning

confidence: 99%

Optics technology for large-aperture space telescopes: from fabrication to final acceptance tests

et al. 2018

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This review paper addresses topics of fabrication, testing, alignment, and as-built performance of reflective space optics for the next generation of telescopes across the x-ray to far-infrared spectrum. The technology presented in the manuscript represents the most promising methods to enable a next level of astronomical observation capabilities for space-based telescopes as motivated by the science community. While the technology to produce the proposed telescopes does not exist in its final form, the optics industry is making steady and impressive progress toward these goals across all disciplines. We hope that through sharing these developments in context of the science objectives, further connections and improvements are enabled to push the envelope of the technology.

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Survey of experimental results in high-contrast imaging for future exoplanet missions

Cited by 14 publications

References 4 publications

Impact of space weather on climate and habitability of terrestrial-type exoplanets

Impact of space weather on climate and habitability of terrestrial-type exoplanets

EXCEDE technology development III: first vacuum tests

Optics technology for large-aperture space telescopes: from fabrication to final acceptance tests

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