Published October 25, 2004
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The Lyot project: toward exoplanet imaging and spectroscopy
Abstract
Among the adaptive optics systems available to astronomers, the US Air Force Advanced Electro-Optical System (AEOS) is unique because it delivers very high order wave front correction. The Lyot Project includes the construction and installation of the world's first diffraction-limited, optimized coronagraph that exploits the full astronomical potential of AEOS and represents a critical step toward the long-term goal of directly imaging and studying extrasolar planets (a.k.a. "exoplanets"). We provide an update on the Project, whose coronagraph saw first light in March 2004. The coronagraph is operating at least as well as predicted by simulations, and a survey of nearby stars has begun.
Additional Information
© 2004 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). The Lyot Project is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0334916 and 0215793. Toe Lyot Project grateful acknowledges the support of the US Air Force and NSF in creating the AEOS/ATI opportunity that provides access to the AEOS telescope. Eighty percent of the funds for that program are provided by the US Air Force. The Lyot Project is also grateful to the Cordelia Corporation, the Vincent Astor Fund and two anonymous donors, who enabled the construction of the AMNH lab and initiated the project. Digby and Soummer are supported by Michelson Postdoctoral Fellowships. Perrin is supported by a Michelson Graduate Fellowship. Oppenheimer is partially supported by the American Museum of Natural History's Kalbfleisch Fund. The Lyot Project also recognizes the exemplary efforts of Mike Sweeney and his team at Axsys Technologies who were commissioned to build the custom optics and the focal and pupil plane optical stops. This work is based on observations made at the Maui Space Surveillance System operated by Detachment 15 of the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory's Directed Energy Directorate. Sivaramakrishnan and Makidon acknowledge support from the Space Telescope Science lnstitute's Director's Discretionary Fund.Attached Files
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Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 93099
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20190221-110522583
- AST-0334916
- NSF
- AST-0215793
- NSF
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR)
- Cordelia Corporation
- Vincent Astor Fund
- NASA Michelson Fellowship
- American Museum of Natural History
- Space Telescope Science Institute
- Created
-
2019-02-26Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
-
2021-11-16Created from EPrint's last_modified field
- Series Name
- Proceedings of SPIE
- Series Volume or Issue Number
- 5490