imaging Archives

Best-fit occultation depths of individual CHEOPS visits (blue) along with their posteriors on the right. The horizontal solid and dashed lines represent the mean occultation depth of 82.4 ± 5.6 ppm. The panel on the right-side displays the best-fit posterior distribution. The green shaded regions indicate the span of the TESS Sectors 40, 41 and 54 while the brown points indicate sector-wise occultation depth. -- astro-ph.EP

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

CHEOPS Observations Of KELT-20 b/MASCARA-2 b: An Aligned Orbit And Signs Of Variability From A Reflective Dayside

by Keith CowingNovember 8, 2023November 8, 2023

Occultations are windows of opportunity to indirectly peek into the dayside atmosphere of exoplanets. High-precision transit events provide information on the spin-orbit alignment of exoplanets around fast-rotating hosts.

Astronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Press Release

The Giant Nature Of WD 1856 b Implies That Transiting Rocky Planets Are Rare Around White Dwarfs

by Keith CowingNovember 2, 2023November 2, 2023

White dwarfs (WDs) have roughly Earth-sized radii – a fact long recognized to facilitate the potential discovery of sub-Earth sized planets via transits, as well atmospheric characterization including biosignatures.

A new frequency comb setup can capture the moment-by-moment details of carbon dioxide gas escaping from a nozzle at supersonic speeds in an air-filled chamber, followed by rapid oscillations of gas due to complex aerodynamics within the chamber. The data plot shows the absorbance of light (vertical) over time (horizontal left to right) across a range of frequencies (horizontal forward to back).Credit: G. Mathews/University of Colorado Boulder

Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exploration Gear & Tech, Press Release, Tricorders & Sensors

Tricorder Tech: New Frequency Comb Can Identify Molecules In 20-nanosecond Snapshots

by Keith CowingOctober 30, 2023October 30, 2023

From monitoring concentrations of greenhouse gases to detecting COVID in the breath, laser systems known as frequency combs can identify specific molecules as simple as carbon dioxide and as complex […]

Examples of simulation result for an Earth twin at 10 pc in a visible (710-800 nm, R=140, top) and NIR bandpass (1050-1250 nm, R = 70, bottom). (a)&(d): simulated interferogram of a two-port iFTS, with a Boxcar apodization function. Red points are the difference of intensity at two outputs at each scanning step, with error bars from photon noise and detector noise. (b)&(e) present simulated spectra for an iFTS (red) and an IFS (blue). (c)&(f) present the analytical and numerical signal-to-noise ratios of an iFTS (red) and an IFS (blue). Here, we use a 6 m sized telescope with dark current of 0.77 e−/hr/pix for the visible camera and readout noise of 5.9 e−/frame/pix for the NIR camera with a frame time of 1000s. The SNRs are computed for a 500 hrs exposure time analytically and numerically. Other instrument parameters see in Table 2. -- astro-ph.EP

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

Direct Detection And Characterization Of Exoplanets Using Imaging Fourier Transform Spectroscopy

by Keith CowingOctober 30, 2023October 30, 2023

Space-based direct imaging provides prospects for detection and spectral characterization of exoplanets at optical and near-infrared wavelengths. Integral field spectrographs (IFS) have been historically baselined for these mission concepts.

Example images of HIP 65426 (top panels) and HD 116084 (bottom panels) before and after bad pixel correction (left and right panels, respectively). The color scale has been stretched so that it ranges from 0 to 1% of the peak counts in each image. Residual striping features are seen in the HD 116084 images, which we discuss in Section 4.1. The pixel size in all images is 65 mas, for a total field of view of 5.2 × 5.2 arcseconds. -- astro-ph.EP

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

The JWST Early Release Science Program for Direct Observations of Exoplanetary Systems IV: NIRISS Aperture Masking Interferometry Performance and Lessons Learned

by Keith CowingOctober 21, 2023October 19, 2023

We present a performance analysis for the aperture masking interferometry (AMI) mode on board the James Webb Space Telescope Near Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph (JWST/NIRISS).

‘Oumuamua -- Illustration by Samuel Cabot

Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Astronomy & Telescopes, Comets and Asteroids, Interstellar, Meteorites & Asteroids, Panspermia, Press Release, Space Weather & Heliophysics

X-rays May Tell Us More About The Origins Of Visiting Space Rocks

by Keith CowingOctober 14, 2023October 14, 2023

A research team led by a Yale astronomer has some advice for our next close encounter with a wandering, interstellar object. Check its X-rays on the way out. Since 2017, […]

Properties of known exoplanets in mass vs. semi-major axis plane. Color codes the detection technique: green—transits, red—radial velocity, orange—direct imaging, blue—microlensing. Data were taken from the NASA Exoplanet Archive (accessed 09/08/2023). -- astro-ph.EP

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

Exoplanet Occurrence Rates From Microlensing Surveys

by Keith CowingOctober 13, 2023October 13, 2023

The number of exoplanets detected using gravitational microlensing technique is currently larger than 200, which enables population studies.

Example simulated SCALES L band observations of an HR 8799 analog, with three planets having effective temperatures between 900 K and 1100 K and radii of 1 RJ. Top panels show ADI-processed slices from a low-resolution L band mock observation of a system of exoplanets similar to HR 8799. The bottom panel shows the recovered spectra for the three injected planets (green, purple, blue lines) plotted over the injected spectra (grey lines). The vertical lines in the bottom panel indicate the wavelengths of the three images in the top panels. The simulated observations assumed one hour of total integration time spread over ∼ 80◦ of parallactic angle evolution. -- astro-ph.IM

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

The Slicer Combined With Array Of Lenslets For Exoplanet Spectroscopy (SCALES): Driving Science Cases And Expected Outcomes

by Keith CowingOctober 12, 2023October 12, 2023

The Slicer Combined with Array of Lenslets for Exoplanet Spectroscopy (SCALES) is a 2−5 μm, high-contrast integral field spectrograph (IFS) currently being built for Keck Observatory.

Masses and semi-major axes of the planets in our sample. Minimal masses of both confirmed (“conf.”) and unconfirmed (“unconf.”) planets are shown in orange and gray diamonds, respectively, and absolute masses of the confirmed companions GJ 229 B and in HD 136352 are represented in blue pentagons, in the context of all the exoplanets known so far a (“catalog”). a from the catalog http://exoplanet.eu/catalog/ -- astro-ph.EP

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

Planetary System Architectures With Low-mass Inner Planets: Direct Imaging Exploration Of Mature Systems Beyond 1 AU

by Keith CowingOctober 11, 2023

The discovery of planets orbiting at less than 1 au from their host star and less massive than Saturn in various exoplanetary systems revolutionized our theories of planetary formation.

5400+ confirmed exoplanets as of the 11th of August 2023 on a Jupiter mass vs orbital period plot. The Earth is shown on the plot to indicate where an Earth-like planet around a sun-like star would appear. The blue region highlights the terrestrial regime. Very few Earth mass/size planets have been detected thus far. Only a handful are in the habitable zone of their host star. Data taken from exoplanetsarchive.ipac.caltech.edu -- astro-ph.IM

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

The Path To Detecting Extraterrestrial Life With Astrophotonics

by Keith CowingOctober 9, 2023October 9, 2023

Astrophysical research into exoplanets has delivered thousands of confirmed planets orbiting distant stars. These planets span a wide ranges of size and composition, with diversity also being the hallmark of […]

imaging

CHEOPS Observations Of KELT-20 b/MASCARA-2 b: An Aligned Orbit And Signs Of Variability From A Reflective Dayside

The Giant Nature Of WD 1856 b Implies That Transiting Rocky Planets Are Rare Around White Dwarfs

Tricorder Tech: New Frequency Comb Can Identify Molecules In 20-nanosecond Snapshots

Direct Detection And Characterization Of Exoplanets Using Imaging Fourier Transform Spectroscopy

The JWST Early Release Science Program for Direct Observations of Exoplanetary Systems IV: NIRISS Aperture Masking Interferometry Performance and Lessons Learned

X-rays May Tell Us More About The Origins Of Visiting Space Rocks

Exoplanet Occurrence Rates From Microlensing Surveys

The Slicer Combined With Array Of Lenslets For Exoplanet Spectroscopy (SCALES): Driving Science Cases And Expected Outcomes

Planetary System Architectures With Low-mass Inner Planets: Direct Imaging Exploration Of Mature Systems Beyond 1 AU

The Path To Detecting Extraterrestrial Life With Astrophotonics

A Martian Horizon Last Monday Afternoon

Habitable-zone Earths At The Detection Frontier: Measured Completeness And False-alarm Rate Of A Transit Pipeline For The PLATO M-dwarf Sample

A Homogeneous Survey Of JWST MIRI Transmission Spectra Of 10 Exoplanets

Retrieving Ocean Glint Reflectance Signatures From Directly Imaged Earth-like Exoplanets

Analytical Platform (Microsampling, Catapulting, Trapping, and LIBS) for the Characterization of Discrete Domains in Samples of Astrochemical Interest