87 research outputs found
Snapshot coronagraphy with an interferometer in space
Diluted arrays of many optical apertures will be able to provide h
igh-resolution snapshot images if the beams are combined according to the
densified-pupil scheme. We show that the same principle can also provide
coronagraphic images, for detecting faint sources near a bright unresolved one.
Recent refinements of coronagraphic techniques, i.e. the use of a phase mask,
active apodization and dark-speckle analysis, are also applicable for enhanced
contrast. Implemented in the form of a proposed 50-500m Exo-Earth Discoverer
array in space, the principle can serve to detect Earth-like exo-planets in the
infra-red. It can also provide images of faint nebulosity near stars, active
galactic nuclei and quasars. Calculations indicate that exo-planets are
detectable amidst the zodiacal and exo-zodiacal emission faster than with a
Bracewell array of equivalent area, a consequence of the spatial selectivity in
the image.Comment: 23 pages, 10 figures, to appear in Icaru
Evidence for two spatially separated UV continuum emitting regions in the Cloverleaf broad absorption line quasar
Testing the standard Shakura-Sunyaev model of accretion is a challenging task
because the central region of quasars where accretion takes place is unresolved
with telescopes. The analysis of microlensing in gravitationally lensed quasars
is one of the few techniques that can test this model, yielding to the
measurement of the size and of temperature profile of the accretion disc. We
present spectroscopic observations of the gravitationally lensed broad
absorption line quasar H1413+117, which reveal partial microlensing of the
continuum emission that appears to originate from two separated regions: a
microlensed region, corresponding to the compact accretion disc; and a
non-microlensed region, more extended and contributing to at least 30\% of the
total UV-continuum flux. Because this extended continuum is occulted by the
broad absorption line clouds, it is not associated with the host galaxy, but
rather with light scattered in the neighbourhood of the central engine. We
measure the amplitude of microlensing of the compact continuum over the
rest-frame wavelength range 1000-7000 \AA. Following a Bayesian scheme, we
confront our measurements to microlensing simulations of an accretion disc with
a temperature varying as . We find a most likely source
half-light radius of cm (i.e., 0.002\,pc) at
0.18\,m, and a most-likely index of . The standard disc
() model is not ruled out by our data, and is found within the 95\%
confidence interval associated with our measurements. We demonstrate that, for
H1413+117, the existence of an extended continuum in addition to the disc
emission only has a small impact on the inferred disc parameters, and is
unlikely to solve the tension between the microlensing source size and standard
disc sizes, as previously reported in the literature.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics. 12 pages.
Minor changes w.r.t. v1 (language editing, Fig. 5-6
Multi-stage four-quadrant phase mask: achromatic coronagraph for space-based and ground-based telescopes
Less than 3% of the known exoplanets were directly imaged for two main
reasons. They are angularly very close to their parent star, which is several
magnitudes brighter. Direct imaging of exoplanets thus requires a dedicated
instrumentation with large telescopes and accurate wavefront control devices
for high-angular resolution and coronagraphs for attenuating the stellar light.
Coronagraphs are usually chromatic and they cannot perform high-contrast
imaging over a wide spectral bandwidth. That chromaticity will be critical for
future instruments. Enlarging the coronagraph spectral range is a challenge for
future exoplanet imaging instruments on both space-based and ground-based
telescopes. We propose the multi-stage four-quadrant phase mask that associates
several monochromatic four-quadrant phase mask coronagraphs in series.
Monochromatic device performance has already been demonstrated and the
manufacturing procedures are well-under control since their development for
previous instruments on VLT and JWST. The multi-stage implementation simplicity
is thus appealing. We present the instrument principle and we describe the
laboratory performance for large spectral bandwidths and for both pupil shapes
for space- (off-axis telescope) and ground-based (E-ELT) telescopes. The
multi-stage four-quadrant phase mask reduces the stellar flux over a wide
spectral range (30%) and it is a very good candidate to be associated with a
spectrometer for future exoplanet imaging instruments in ground- and
space-based observatories.Comment: 7 pages, 11 figures, 4 tables, accepted in A&
First images on the sky from a hyper telescope
We show star images obtained with a miniature ``densified pupil imaging
interferometer'' also called a hyper-telescope. The formation of such images
violates a ``golden rule of imaging interferometers'' which appeared to forbid
the use of interferometric arrangements differing from a Fizeau interferometer.
These produce useless images when the sub-apertures spacing is much wider than
their size, owing to diffraction through the sub-apertures. The hyper-telescope
arrangement solves these problems opening the way towards multi-kilometer
imaging arrays in space. We experimentally obtain an intensity gain of 24 +- 3X
when a densified-pupil interferometer is compared to an equivalent Fizeau-type
interferometer and show images of the double star alpha Gem. The initial
results presented confirm the possibility of directly obtaining high resolution
and high dynamic range images in the recombined focal plane of a large
interferometer if enough elements are used.Comment: 6 pages, LaTeX, standard A&A macros + BibTeX macros. Accepted for
publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics Supplement
Near-UV to near-IR disk-averaged Earth's reflectance spectra
We report 320 to 1020nm disk-averaged Earth reflectance spectra obtained from
Moon's Earthshine observations with the EMMI spectrograph on the NTT at ESO La
Silla (Chile). The spectral signatures of Earth atmosphere and ground
vegetation are observed. A vegetation red-edge of up to 9% is observed on
Europe and Africa and ~2% upon Pacific Ocean. The spectra also show that Earth
is a blue planet when Rayleigh scattering dominates, or totally white when the
cloud cover is large.Comment: Proceeding of an oral prensentation at the UAI No200 Colloquiu
Improving Interferometric Null Depth Measurements using Statistical Distributions: Theory and First Results with the Palomar Fiber Nuller
A new "self-calibrated" statistical analysis method has been developed for
the reduction of nulling interferometry data. The idea is to use the
statistical distributions of the fluctuating null depth and beam intensities to
retrieve the astrophysical null depth (or equivalently the object's visibility)
in the presence of fast atmospheric fluctuations. The approach yields an
accuracy much better (about an order of magnitude) than is presently possible
with standard data reduction methods, because the astrophysical null depth
accuracy is no longer limited by the magnitude of the instrumental phase and
intensity errors but by uncertainties on their probability distributions. This
approach was tested on the sky with the two-aperture fiber nulling instrument
mounted on the Palomar Hale telescope. Using our new data analysis approach
alone-and no observations of calibrators-we find that error bars on the
astrophysical null depth as low as a few 10-4 can be obtained in the
near-infrared, which means that null depths lower than 10-3 can be reliably
measured. This statistical analysis is not specific to our instrument and may
be applicable to other interferometers
The four-quadrant phase-mask coronagraph: white light laboratory results with an achromatic device
Achromatic coronagraphs are the subject of intensive research since they will be mandatory for many programs which aim at detecting and characterizing exoplanets. We report a laboratory experiment assessing the performance of the Four-Quadrant Phase-Mask coronagraph (FQPM) over a broadband wavelength range (R≈2). The achromatization of the FQPM is provided by achromatic halfwave plates (HWP). These phase shifters combine birefringent plates made of different materials with properly chosen thicknesses. The HWP thickness control is relaxed by two orders of magnitudes with respect to the classical (non-birefringent) dispersive plate approach. In our experiment we used a two stage stack of Quartz and MgF_2. This combination allows to cover a large spectral range in the visible (500-900nm) with a small phase error residual around π(≈0.12 rad rms). With this achromatization, we obtained an attenuation of 755 on the white light PSF peak. This solution is directly applicable to ground-based telescopes using high order adaptive optics such as the ESO's VLT-Planet Finder project and could easily be transposed in the mid-infrared domain for future space-based missions like DARWIN/TPF
Coronagraphic imaging of three weak-line T Tauri stars: evidence of planetary formation around PDS 70
Context.High angular resolution imaging of nearby pre-main sequence stars with ages between 1 and 30 Myr can give valuable information on planet formation mechanisms. This range of ages is thought to correspond to the dissipation of the optically thick dust disks surrounding young stars and to the end of the planet formation.
Aims.This paper presents new observations of three weak-line T Tauri Stars (WTTS) of intermediate ages ranging from 7 to 16 Myr. It aims at increasing the knowledge and sample of circumstellar disks around "old" WTTS.
Methods.We observed three stars with the VLT's NAOS-CONICA adaptive optics system in coronagraphic mode. The four-quadrant phase mask coronagraph was used to improve the dynamic range (by a factor of ~100) while preserving the high angular resolution (inner working angle of 0".15).
Results.One object of our sample (PDS 70), a K5 star, exhibits a brown dwarf companion and a disk in scattered light with a surface brightness power law of r^-2.8, extending from a distance of 14 to 140 AU (assuming a stellar distance of 140 pc) and an integrated luminosity of 16.7 mJy in the K_s-band. The mass of the companion can be estimated to be within a range between 27 and 50 Jupiter masses with an effective temperature of 2750 ± 100K. This object also shows a resolved outflow stretching up to ~550 AU.
Conclusions.This newly detected circumstellar disk shows strong similarities with the disk around TW Hya, and adds to the observed population of "old" TTS surrounded by circumstellar material. Moreover, three clues of planetary formation are brought to light by this study
- …