Simulating high dispersion coronagraphy (HDC) observations for large ground-based telescopes (Conference Presentation)

Abstract

Spectroscopy of exoplanets can potentially detect biomarkers in habitable planets around other stars. The high dispersion coronagraphy (HDC) technique provides a pathway to search for biomarkers in planets around M dwarfs with next-generation ground-based extremely large telescopes (ELTs). The HDC consists of a coronagraph operating behind an extreme adaptive optics (AO) system, a single-mode fiber injection unit, and a high resolution spectrometer (HRS). The coronagraph spatially filters out starlight while the HRS spectrally discriminates starlight from planet light, reaching a starlight suppression level that enables biomarker detection. I will simulating ELT HDC instrument performance as a function of wavelength, spectral resolution, starlight suppression, and planet types, considering realistic noise budget that includes speckle noise, thermal and sky background and exozodical background.

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