Abstract
Ground based adaptive optics is a potentially powerful technique for direct imaging detection of extrasolar planets. Turbulence in the Earth's atmosphere imposes some fundamental limits, but the large size of ground-based telescopes compared to spacecraft can work to mitigate this. We are carrying out a design study for a dedicated ultra-high-contrast system, the eXtreme Adaptive Optics Planet Imager (XAOPI), which could be deployed on an 8-10m telescope in 2007. With a 4096-actuator MEMS deformable mirror it should achieve Strehl >0.9 in the near-IR. Using an innovative spatially filtered wavefront sensor, the system will be optimized to control scattered light over a large radius and suppress artifacts caused by static errors. We predict that it will achieve contrast levels of 10 7-10 8 at angular separations of 0.2-0.8" around a large sample of stars (R<7-10), sufficient to detect Jupiter-like planets through their near-IR emission over a wide range of ages and masses. We are constructing a high-contrast AO testbed to verify key concepts of our system, and present preliminary results here, showing an RMS wavefront error of <1.3 nm with a flat mirror.
Original language | English (US) |
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Title of host publication | Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering |
Editors | D.R. Coulter |
Pages | 272-282 |
Number of pages | 11 |
Volume | 5170 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 2003 |
Externally published | Yes |
Event | Techniques and Instrumentation for Detection of Exoplants - San Diego, CA, United States Duration: Aug 5 2003 → Aug 7 2003 |
Other
Other | Techniques and Instrumentation for Detection of Exoplants |
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Country/Territory | United States |
City | San Diego, CA |
Period | 8/5/03 → 8/7/03 |
Keywords
- Adaptive optics
- Extrasolar planets
- MOEMS
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Electrical and Electronic Engineering
- Condensed Matter Physics