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Last name: ZIMMERMAN
First name: Neil
International audience
Future searches for bio-markers on habitable exoplanets will rely on telescope instruments that achieve extremely high contrast at small planet-to-star angular separations. Coronagraphy is a promising starlight suppression technique, providing excellent contrast and throughput for off-axis sources on clear apertures. However, the complexity of...
International audience
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Segmented telescopes are a possible approach to enable large-aperture space telescopes for the direct imaging and spectroscopy of habitable worlds. However, the increased complexity of their aperture geometry, due to the central obstruction, support structures and segment gaps, makes high-contrast imaging very challenging. The High-contrast...
We aim to inform Astro2020 of the status of coronagraph technology for use with a space-based segmented and/or partially obscured primary mirror. Our design and modeling study has determined that multiple coronagraph architectures can achieve the necessary performance. Some preliminary observatory requirements appear challenging but achievable.
Instrumentation techniques in the field of direct imaging of exoplanets have greatly advanced over the last two decades. Two of the four NASA-commissioned large concept studies involve a high-contrast instrument for the imaging and spectral characterization of exo-Earths from space: LUVOIR and HabEx. This whitepaper describes the status of 8...
International audience