Result: A laboratory demonstration of the capability to image an earth-like extrasolar planet

Title:
A laboratory demonstration of the capability to image an earth-like extrasolar planet
Authors:
TRAUGER, John T, TRAUB, Wesley A
Source:
Nature (London). 446(7137):771-773
Publisher Information:
London: Nature Publishing, 2007.
Publication Year:
2007
Physical Description:
print, 23 ref
Original Material:
INIST-CNRS
Subject Terms:
Multidisciplinary, Multidisciplinaire, Sciences exactes et technologie, Exact sciences and technology, Terre, ocean, espace, Earth, ocean, space, Astronomie, Astronomy, Astronomie fondamentale et astrophysique. Instrumentation, techniques, et observations astronomiques, Fundamental astronomy and astrophysics. Instrumentation, techniques, and astronomical observations, Techniques d'observation et de réduction des données. Simulation et modélisation par ordinateur, Observation and data reduction techniques. Computer modeling and simulation, Traitement des images (incluant l'extraction des sources), Image processing (including source extraction), Coronographe, Coronographs, Etoile proche, Nearby stars, Intensité, Intensity, Intensidad, Lumière diffuse, Scattered light, Luz difusa, Lumière stellaire, Star light, Luz estelar, Planète extrasolaire, Extrasolar planets, Traitement image, Image processing
Document Type:
Academic journal Article
File Description:
text
Language:
English
Author Affiliations:
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, California 91109, United States
ISSN:
0028-0836
Access URL:
http://pascal-francis.inist.fr/vibad/index.php?action=search&terms=18646844
Rights:
Copyright 2007 INIST-CNRS
CC BY 4.0
Sauf mention contraire ci-dessus, le contenu de cette notice bibliographique peut être utilisé dans le cadre d’une licence CC BY 4.0 Inist-CNRS / Unless otherwise stated above, the content of this bibliographic record may be used under a CC BY 4.0 licence by Inist-CNRS / A menos que se haya señalado antes, el contenido de este registro bibliográfico puede ser utilizado al amparo de una licencia CC BY 4.0 Inist-CNRS
Notes:
Astronomy
Accession Number:
edscal.18646844
Database:
PASCAL Archive

Further Information

The detection and characterization of an Earth-like planet orbiting a nearby star requires a telescope with an extraordinarily large contrast at small angular separations. At visible wavelengths, an Earth-like planet would be 1 X 10-10 times fainter than the star at angular separations of typically 0.1 arcsecond or less1,2. There are several proposed space telescope systems that could, in principle, achieve this3-6. Here we report a laboratory experiment that reaches these limits. We have suppressed the diffracted and scattered light near a star-like source to a level of 6 X 10-10 times the peak intensity in individual coronagraph images. In a series of such images, together with simple image processing, we have effectively reduced this to a residual noise level of about 0.1 X 10-10. This demonstrates that a coronagraphic telescope in space could detect and spectroscopically characterize nearby exoplanetary systems, with the sensitivity to image an 'Earth-twin' orbiting a nearby star.