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Published December 2018 | public
Journal Article

The planet formation imager

Abstract

The Planet Formation Imager (PFI, www.planetformationimager.org) is a next-generation infrared interferometer array with the primary goal of imaging the active phases of planet formation in nearby star forming regions. PFI will be sensitive to warm dust emission using mid-infrared capabilities made possible by precise fringe tracking in the near-infrared. An L/M band combiner will be especially sensitive to thermal emission from young exoplanets (and their disks) with a high spectral resolution mode to probe the kinematics of CO and H_2O gas. In this paper, we give an overview of the main science goals of PFI, define a baseline PFI architecture that can achieve those goals, point at remaining technical challenges, and suggest activities today that will help make the Planet Formation Imager facility a reality.

Additional Information

© 2018 Springer Science+Business Media B.V., part of Springer Nature. Received: 09 January 2018; Accepted: 25 May 2018; First Online: 04 July 2018. The PFI project team would like to acknowledge Professor Charles Townes for his profound impact on the field of stellar interferometry – Dr. Townes passed away January 27, 2015 and will be missed by many in our field.

Additional details

Created:
August 22, 2023
Modified:
October 18, 2023