SIMULTANEOUS EXOPLANET CHARACTERIZATION AND DEEP WIDE-FIELD IMAGING WITH A DIFFRACTIVE PUPIL TELESCOPE
- Steward Observatory, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721 (United States)
- College of Optical Sciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721 (United States)
- Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Physics Division L-210, 7000 East Avenue, Livermore, CA 94550 (United States)
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109 (United States)
- National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Subaru Telescope, Hilo, HI 96720 (United States)
- Exploration Sciences, P.O. Box 24, Pine, CO 80470 (United States)
- Lockheed Martin, 2081 Evergreen Avenue, Boulder, CO 80304 (United States)
- NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA 94035 (United States)
High-precision astrometry can identify exoplanets and measure their orbits and masses while coronagraphic imaging enables detailed characterization of their physical properties and atmospheric compositions through spectroscopy. In a previous paper, we showed that a diffractive pupil telescope (DPT) in space can enable sub-{mu}as accuracy astrometric measurements from wide-field images by creating faint but sharp diffraction spikes around the bright target star. The DPT allows simultaneous astrometric measurement and coronagraphic imaging, and we discuss and quantify in this paper the scientific benefits of this combination for exoplanet science investigations: identification of exoplanets with increased sensitivity and robustness, and ability to measure planetary masses to high accuracy. We show how using both measurements to identify planets and measure their masses offers greater sensitivity and provides more reliable measurements than possible with separate missions, and therefore results in a large gain in mission efficiency. The combined measurements reliably identify potentially habitable planets in multiple systems with a few observations, while astrometry or imaging alone would require many measurements over a long time baseline. In addition, the combined measurement allows direct determination of stellar masses to percent-level accuracy, using planets as test particles. We also show that the DPT maintains the full sensitivity of the telescope for deep wide-field imaging, and is therefore compatible with simultaneous scientific observations unrelated to exoplanets. We conclude that astrometry, coronagraphy, and deep wide-field imaging can be performed simultaneously on a single telescope without significant negative impact on the performance of any of the three techniques.
- OSTI ID:
- 22167448
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 767, Issue 1; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0004-637X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
THE SYNERGY OF DIRECT IMAGING AND ASTROMETRY FOR ORBIT DETERMINATION OF EXO-EARTHS
Microarcsecond relative astrometry from the ground with a diffractive pupil