1,927 research outputs found
Confidence Level and Sensitivity Limits in High Contrast Imaging
In long adaptive optics corrected exposures, exoplanet detections are
currently limited by speckle noise originating from the telescope and
instrument optics, and it is expected that such noise will also limit future
high-contrast imaging instruments for both ground and space-based telescopes.
Previous theoretical analysis have shown that the time intensity variations of
a single speckle follows a modified Rician. It is first demonstrated here that
for a circular pupil this temporal intensity distribution also represents the
speckle spatial intensity distribution at a fix separation from the point
spread function center; this fact is demonstrated using numerical simulations
for coronagraphic and non-coronagraphic data. The real statistical distribution
of the noise needs to be taken into account explicitly when selecting a
detection threshold appropriate for some desired confidence level. In this
paper, a technique is described to obtain the pixel intensity distribution of
an image and its corresponding confidence level as a function of the detection
threshold. Using numerical simulations, it is shown that in the presence of
speckles noise, a detection threshold up to three times higher is required to
obtain a confidence level equivalent to that at 5sigma for Gaussian noise. The
technique is then tested using TRIDENT CFHT and angular differential imaging
NIRI Gemini adaptive optics data. It is found that the angular differential
imaging technique produces quasi-Gaussian residuals, a remarkable result
compared to classical adaptive optic imaging. A power-law is finally derived to
predict the 1-3*10^-7 confidence level detection threshold when averaging a
partially correlated non-Gaussian noise.Comment: 29 pages, 13 figures, accepted to Ap
Angular Differential Imaging: a Powerful High-Contrast Imaging Technique
Angular differential imaging is a high-contrast imaging technique that
reduces quasi-static speckle noise and facilitates the detection of nearby
companions. A sequence of images is acquired with an altitude/azimuth telescope
while the instrument field derotator is switched off. This keeps the instrument
and telescope optics aligned and allows the field of view to rotate with
respect to the instrument. For each image, a reference PSF is constructed from
other appropriately-selected images of the same sequence and subtracted to
remove quasi-static PSF structure. All residual images are then rotated to
align the field and are combined. Observed performances are reported for Gemini
North data. It is shown that quasi-static PSF noise can be reduced by a factor
\~5 for each image subtraction. The combination of all residuals then provides
an additional gain of the order of the square root of the total number of
acquired images. A total speckle noise attenuation of 20-50 is obtained for
one-hour long observing sequences compared to a single 30s exposure. A PSF
noise attenuation of 100 was achieved for two-hour long sequences of images of
Vega, reaching a 5-sigma contrast of 20 magnitudes for separations greater than
8". For a 30-minute long sequence, ADI achieves 30 times better signal-to-noise
than a classical observation technique. The ADI technique can be used with
currently available instruments to search for ~1MJup exoplanets with orbits of
radii between 50 and 300 AU around nearby young stars. The possibility of
combining the technique with other high-contrast imaging methods is briefly
discussed.Comment: 27 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in Ap
Direct Imaging of Multiple Planets Orbiting the Star HR 8799
Direct imaging of exoplanetary systems is a powerful technique that can
reveal Jupiter-like planets in wide orbits, can enable detailed
characterization of planetary atmospheres, and is a key step towards imaging
Earth-like planets. Imaging detections are challenging due to the combined
effect of small angular separation and large luminosity contrast between a
planet and its host star. High-contrast observations with the Keck and Gemini
telescopes have revealed three planets orbiting the star HR 8799, with
projected separations of 24, 38, and 68 astronomical units. Multi-epoch data
show counter-clockwise orbital motion for all three imaged planets. The low
luminosity of the companions and the estimated age of the system imply
planetary masses between 5 and 13 times that of Jupiter. This system resembles
a scaled-up version of the outer portion of our Solar System.Comment: 30 pages, 5 figures, Research Article published online in Science
Express Nov 13th, 200
System Design of the Miniaturized Distributed Occulter/Telescope (mDOT) Science Mission
The miniaturized Distributed Occulter Telescope (mDOT) will provide unprecedented detection and direct measurements of brightness of extrasolar dust disks at short visible to ultraviolet wavelengths. The baseline mission will observe over 15 targets using a starshade for high-contrast imaging, blocking the target star with a specially shaped free-flying occulter to allow nearby objects to be detected. mDOT operates on a much smaller scale than flagship NASA missions, with an autonomous formation of two small satellites in sun-synchronous low Earth orbit. An occulter-smallsat (246kg, 192W) carries a precisely manufactured 3m-diameter starshade and a telescope-cubesat (6U, 12kg, 40W) carries a 10cm-diameter telescope. The satellites are launched combined as a secondary payload for a total mission lifetime of 1.1 years. After launch, the occulter-smallsat ejects the telescope-cubesat and maneuvers to establish the desired relative orbit, leaving the spacecraft at slightly different longitudes of ascending node. Relative eccentricity and inclination vector separation provides the baseline for scientific observations at the equator (500 km) and a minimum safe distance perpendicular to the flight direction at all times (\u3e1km). The starshade suppresses the light of the target star by 10-7 or more. During a science pass, high-ISP green propellant thrusters on the occulter-smallsat maintain the formation, while differential GNSS is used for cm-accurate relative navigation. Earth’s oblateness perturbations are used to precess the orbits and acquire the science targets over the mission lifetime at minimal propellant cost. The mission addresses key NASA science objectives and provide the unique opportunity to mature starshade techniques for future exoplanet missions
The Structure of High Strehl Ratio Point-Spread Functions
We describe the symmetries present in the point-spread function (PSF) of an
optical system either located in space or corrected by an adaptive o to Strehl
ratios of about 70% and higher. We present a formalism for expanding the PSF to
arbitrary order in terms of powers of the Fourier transform of the residual
phase error, over an arbitrarily shaped and apodized entrance aperture. For
traditional unapodized apertures at high Strehl ratios, bright speckles pinned
to the bright Airy rings are part of an antisymmetric perturbation of the
perfect PSF, arising from the term that is first order in the residual phase
error. There are two symmetric second degree terms. One is negative at the
center, and, like the first order term, is modulated by the perfect image's
field strength -- it reduces to the Marechal approximation at the center of the
PSF. The other is non-negative everywhere, zero at the image center, and can be
responsible for an extended halo -- which limits the dynamic range of faint
companion detection in the darkest portions of the image. In regimes where one
or the other term dominates the speckles in an image, the symmetry of the
dominant term can be exploited to reduce the effect of those speckles,
potentially by an order of magnitude or more. We demonstrate the effects of
both secondary obscuration and pupil apodization on the structure of residual
speckles, and discuss how these symmetries can be exploited by appropriate
telescope and instrument design, observing strategies, and filter bandwidths to
improve the dynamic range of high dynamic range AO and space-based
observations. Finally, we show that our analysis is relevant to high dynamic
range coronagraphy.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ; 20 pages, 4 figure
- …