coronagraph Archives

XAO+PIAAN simulation scheme. -- astro-ph.IM

Astronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Proxima Centauri, Status Report

RISTRETTO: A VLT XAO Design To Reach Proxima Cen b In The Visible

by Keith CowingSeptember 13, 2024September 13, 2024

RISTRETTO is the evolution of the original idea of coupling the VLT instruments SPHERE and ESPRESSO lovis_2016a, aiming at High Dispersion Coronagraphy. RISTRETTO is a visitor instrument that should enable […]

Proposed observing strategy and post-processing strategy for Roman Coronagraph operations. After the dark hole is created, high-order mode dithers are applied on the DM during the reference star observations and the corresponding science camera (EXCAM) images and low order wavefront sensor measurements are saved. After the science target observations, the science camera images are compared to the high-order mode dithered reference star image library using PCA-type algorithms to produce a custom speckle pattern that matches the science observations. This approach is a generalization of the tip-tilt and low-order mode dithers tested on JWST13 and Subaru11, 12 to high-order modes within a dark hole. In complement, the low-order wavefront sensor telemetry can be used to further inform the speckle pattern model by down-selecting or excluding specific images from the dither library depending on how they match with the science target telemetry. Simulated images and modes from 26, 53. astro-ph.EP

AI - Data - Apps - Cybernetics, Astronomy & Telescopes, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report

ESCAPE Project: Investigating Active Observing Strategies and Post-processing Methods for Exoplanet High-contrast Imaging with Future Space Missions

by Keith CowingSeptember 10, 2024September 10, 2024

The search for biosignatures in potentially habitable exoplanets is one of the major astrophysics’ drivers for the coming decades, and the prime science goal of the HWO NASA mission, a […]

Astronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Interstellar, Status Report

Unveiling Habitable Planets: Toy Coronagraph Tackles The Exozodiacal Dust Challenge

by Keith CowingSeptember 10, 2024September 10, 2024

Directly imaging Earth-like exoplanets within habitable zones is challenging because faint signals can be obscured by exozodiacal dust, analogous to our solar system’s zodiacal dust. This dust scatters starlight, creating […]

Coronagraphic images of HD 95086 in each filter (F1065, F1140, and F2300) are shown in the top panel, followed by the same images after the subtraction of an optimized-reference star in the lower panel. The coronagraphic center is illustrated with the small star in blue. The inner disk, the planet, the background galaxies g and g2, and the background star s are labeled. For clarity, the color scale is enhanced for the bottom pannel at F1065C and F1140C, using an asinh scale. Units are in DN/s. -- astro-ph.EP

Astronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report

Unveiling the HD 95086 System at Mid-infrared Wavelengths with JWST/MIRI

by Keith CowingSeptember 4, 2024September 4, 2024

Mid-infrared imaging of exoplanets and disks is now possible with the coronagraphs of the MIRI on the JWST. This wavelength range unveils new features of young directly imaged systems and […]

Left: First prototype of the tgVVC as manufactured by ImagineOptix. The pattern inaccuracies, retardance errors, and alignment errors result in a non-vortex pattern between crossed polarizers. Adapted from Doelman et al. (2023).14 Right: One of the first liquid-crystal mgVVC patterns manufactured by Colorlink Japan. -- astro-ph.IM

Astronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Nanotechnology & SynBio, Status Report

Prototyping Liquid-crystal Coronagraphs For Exo-Earth Imaging

by Keith CowingJuly 25, 2024July 25, 2024

This paper presents initial results from the ESA-funded “SUPPPPRESS” project, which aims to develop high-performance liquid-crystal coronagraphs for direct imaging of Earth-like exoplanets in reflected light.

Exoplanet Epsilon Indi Ab (Left) -- James Webb Space Telescope

Astronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Brown Dwarfs, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Gas Giants, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Jupiter, Press Release

Webb Images Cold Exoplanet Epsilon Indi Ab 12 Light-Years Away

by Keith CowingJuly 24, 2024July 24, 2024

If alien astronomers in a nearby star system had a telescope like NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, and they pointed it toward our solar system, then Jupiter might look very […]

The Keck Planet Imager and Characterizer (KPIC) connects the Keck II AO system and the Keck/NIRSPEC high-resolution infrared spectrograph (https://www2.keck.hawaii.edu/inst/nirspec/) via a linear bundle of four single-mode fibers spaced by ~800 mas on the sky. Single-mode fibers provide a more stable quasi-Gaussian line spread function. Their small angular size, matched to the diffraction limit (FWHM~50 mas in K band), also provides excellent sky background rejection, as well as reduces the off-axis starlight injection into the single mode fibers. Currently, KPIC uses the Shack-Hartmann Wavefront Sensors for AO. Larger image

Astronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report

The High-contrast Performance of the Keck Planet Imager and Characterizer

by Keith CowingJune 24, 2024June 24, 2024

The Keck Planet Imager and Characterizer (KPIC), a series of upgrades to the Keck II Adaptive Optics System and Instrument Suite, aims to demonstrate high-resolution spectroscopy of faint exoplanets that […]

PSF-subtracted JWST/NIRCam (left) and MIRI (right) images of the β Pic system (arbitrary color stretch). Five background sources were identified based on their NIRCam colors or morphology whose positions are highlighted in both images with red circles. The orange circles in the NIRCam image show the source positions rotated by the telescope roll angle, where negative ADI residuals are visible. BG4 appears to be the only source which is also visible in the MIRI image. The MIRI image was adapted from Rebollido et al. (2024). -- astro-ph.EP

Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Astronomy & Telescopes, Beta Pictoris, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Gas Giants, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Press Release

JWST-TST High Contrast: JWST/NIRCam Observations Of The Young Giant Planet β Pic b

by Keith CowingMay 30, 2024May 30, 2024

We present the first JWST/NIRCam observations of the directly-imaged gas giant exoplanet β Pic b. Observations in six filters using NIRCam’s round coronagraphic masks provide a high signal-to-noise detection of […]

Left panel: A single frame of data from the 3.69 μm wavelength channel, overplotted with the apertures and annuli used to obtain flux and background measurements for the host star HD 1160 A (in orange) and companion HD 1160 B (in purple). The dashed lines indicate the background annuli. Each image uses a different arbitrary logarithmic colour scale, and both are north-aligned, where north is up and east is to the left. Right panel: the final LBT/ALES+dgvAPP360 image of the HD 1160 system from the second night, produced by taking the median combination of all frames in the 3.59-3.99 μm range over both time and wavelength. This image covers a total integration time of 10800 s (3 h). -- astro-ph.SR

Astrogeology, Astronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report

Exploring The Directly Imaged HD 1160 System Through Spectroscopic Characterisation And High-cadence Variability Monitoring

by Keith CowingMay 23, 2024May 23, 2024

The time variability and spectra of directly imaged companions provide insight into their physical properties and atmospheric dynamics.

At JPL on May 17, members of the Roman Coronagraph Instrument team use a crane to lift the top portion of the shipping container that the instrument was stored in for its journey to NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Astronomy & Telescopes, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Press Release

Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope’s Planet Hunting Coronagraph Update

by Keith CowingMay 22, 2024May 22, 2024

A technology demo on the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will help increase the variety of distant planets scientists can directly image.

coronagraph

RISTRETTO: A VLT XAO Design To Reach Proxima Cen b In The Visible

ESCAPE Project: Investigating Active Observing Strategies and Post-processing Methods for Exoplanet High-contrast Imaging with Future Space Missions

Unveiling Habitable Planets: Toy Coronagraph Tackles The Exozodiacal Dust Challenge

Unveiling the HD 95086 System at Mid-infrared Wavelengths with JWST/MIRI

Prototyping Liquid-crystal Coronagraphs For Exo-Earth Imaging

Webb Images Cold Exoplanet Epsilon Indi Ab 12 Light-Years Away

The High-contrast Performance of the Keck Planet Imager and Characterizer

JWST-TST High Contrast: JWST/NIRCam Observations Of The Young Giant Planet β Pic b

Exploring The Directly Imaged HD 1160 System Through Spectroscopic Characterisation And High-cadence Variability Monitoring

Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope’s Planet Hunting Coronagraph Update

Astrobiologist Dale Andersen’s Antarctic Field Report: 11 November 2026: Weather Update And Forecast

Astrobiologist Dale Andersen’s Antarctic Field Report: 10 November 2026: Weather Update Forecast

Dispersal of Bacterial Spores Away From Spacecraft on the Martian Surface is Unlikely to Contaminate Subsequent Life-detection Samples

From Exo-Earth Detection to Atmospheric Characterization: Enabling Phase-Dependent Molecular Detection SNR in EXOSIMS

Ancient Rocks Reveal When Earth’s Tectonic Engine Switched On