A photonic solution to exoplanet direct imaging via nulling interferometry

Harry-Dean Kenchington Goldsmith; Michael Ireland; Steve Madden

doi:10.1117/12.2540454

3 January 2020 A photonic solution to exoplanet direct imaging via nulling interferometry

Harry-Dean Kenchington Goldsmith, Michael Ireland, Steve Madden

Proceedings Volume 11203, Advances in Optical Astronomical Instrumentation 2019; 112030T (2020) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2540454
Event: ANZCOP, 2019, Melbourne, Australia

Abstract

Direct imaging of exoplanets is vital for understanding star system formation and the evolutionary behaviour of exoplanets at large orbits. Typically, imaging a star system to find an exoplanet requires significant attenuation of the host star’s high flux in order to detect the much weaker planetary light. The most common method to do this is coronagraphy, which blocks the starlight with an amplitude mask or a null inducing phase mask [1]. An alternative and attractive method is nulling interferometry where light from multiple telescopes are used to simultaneously form a high resolution image (or its Fourier components) and also to form a null in the vicinity of the host star, thereby attenuating it [2]. This has the advantage over coronagraphy that it is not limited to using a single telescope and is thus able to probe deeper into a star system by virtue of the higher resolution available by an interferometric array.

Citation Download Citation

Harry-Dean Kenchington Goldsmith, Michael Ireland, and Steve Madden "A photonic solution to exoplanet direct imaging via nulling interferometry", Proc. SPIE 11203, Advances in Optical Astronomical Instrumentation 2019, 112030T (3 January 2020); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2540454

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