Jump to Content
Your Recent History
View Cart
GENERAL INFORMATION
Logged Out Log In
Space telescope sensitivity and controls for exoplanet imaging
Opt. Eng. 51, 011002 (Feb 08, 2012); http://dx.doi.org/10.1117/1.OE.51.1.011002
Alerts
Alert Me When Cited
Alert Me When Corrected
Tools
Download Citation
Add to MyScitation
Blog This Article
Print-Friendly
Research Toolkit
Share
Email Abstract
Connotea
CiteULike
del.icio.us
BibSonomy
Tweet this Article
Add to FacebookWe address design considerations and outline requirements for space telescopes with capabilities for high contrast imaging of exoplanets. The approach taken is to identify the span of potentially detectable Earth-sized terrestrial planets in the habitable zone of the nearest stars within 30 parsecs and estimate their inner working angles, flux ratios, SNR, sensitivities, wavefront error requirements, and sensing and control times parametrically versus aperture size. We consider 1, 2, 4, 8, and 16-m diameter telescope apertures. The achievable science, range of telescope architectures, and the coronagraphic approach are all active areas of research and are all subject to change in a rapidly evolving field. Thus presented is a snapshot of our current understanding with the goal of limiting the choices to those that appear currently technically feasible. We describe the top-level metrics of inner working angle, contrast and photometric throughput and explore how they are related to the range of target stars. A critical point is that for each telescope architecture and coronagraphic choice, the telescope stability requirements have differing impacts on the design for open- versus closed-loop sensing and control.
© 2012 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers
History
Received Sep 24, 2011
Accepted Nov 03, 2011
Revised Nov 02, 2011
Published online Feb 08, 2012
Corrected Feb 15, 2012
Accepted Nov 03, 2011
Revised Nov 02, 2011
Published online Feb 08, 2012
Corrected Feb 15, 2012
Digital Object Identifier
Citation
Richard G. Lyon and Mark Clampin, "Space telescope sensitivity and controls for exoplanet imaging",
Opt. Eng. 51, 011002 (Feb 08, 2012); http://dx.doi.org/10.1117/1.OE.51.1.011002
DOWNLOAD ARTICLE
LOG IN or SELECT A PURCHASE OPTION:
- Buy PDF (US$25)
- Rent Article ()
EDITORIALLY RELATED
- Errata: Space telescope sensitivity and controls for exoplanet imaging
Richard G. Lyon et al.
Opt. Eng. 51, 039801 (2012)OPEGAR000051000003039801000001
RELATED CONTENT
More Like This Article
For access to fully linked references, you need to log in.
SPIE Digital Library
This Publication
Google Scholar
PubMed