Pupil Masks for Spectrophotometry of Transiting Exoplanets

Journal Article · Fri Sep 01 04:00:00 EDT 2017 · The Astronomical Journal (Online)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-3881/AA8304· OSTI ID:22863041

Itoh, Satoshi; Matsuo, Taro; Goda, Shohei; Shibai, Hiroshi; Sumi, Takahiro ^[1]

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1. Department of Earth and Space Science, Graduate School of Science, Osaka University, 1-1, Machikaneyamacho, Toyonaka, Osaka 560-0043 (Japan)

Spectrophotometric stability, which is crucial in the spectral characterization of transiting exoplanets, is affected by photometric variations arising from field-stop loss in space telescopes with pointing jitter or primary mirror deformation. This paper focuses on a new method for removing slit-loss or field-stop-loss photometric variation through the use of a pupil mask. Two types of pupil function are introduced: the first uses conventional (e.g., Gaussian or hyper-Gaussian) apodizing patterns; whereas the second, which we call a block-shaped mask, employs a new type of pupil mask designed for high photometric stability. A methodology for the optimization of a pupil mask for transit observations is also developed. The block-shaped mask can achieve a photometric stability of 10{sup −5} for a nearly arbitrary field-stop radius when the pointing jitter is smaller than approximately 0.7λ/D and a photometric stability of 10{sup −6} at a pointing jitter smaller than approximately 0.5λ/D. The impact of optical aberrations and mask imperfections upon mask performance is also discussed.

• OSTI ID: 22863041
• Journal Information: The Astronomical Journal (Online), Journal Name: The Astronomical Journal (Online) Journal Issue: 3 Vol. 154; ISSN 1538-3881
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
DEFORMATION
FUNCTIONS
OPTIMIZATION
PLANETS
SATELLITES
SPACE
SPECTROPHOTOMETRY
TELESCOPES