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A Laboratory Demonstration of the Capability to Image an Earth-like Extrasolar PlanetThe detection and characterization of an Earth-like planet orbiting a nearby star requires a telescope with an extraordinarily large contrast at small angular separations. At visible wavelengths, an Earth-like planet would be 1 times 10-10 times fainter than the star at angular separations of typically 0.1 arcsecond or less. There are several proposed space telescope systems that could, in principle, achieve this. Here we report a laboratory experiment that reaches these limits. We have suppressed the diffracted and scattered light near a star-like source to a level of 6 times 10-10 times the peak intensity in individual coronagraph images. In a series of such images, together with simple image processing, we have effectively reduced this to a residual noise level of about 0.1 times 10-10. This demonstrates that a coronagraphic telescope in space could detect and spectroscopically characterize nearby exoplanetary systems, with the sensitivity to image an 'Earth-twin' orbiting a nearby star.
Document ID
20080045528
Acquisition Source
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Document Type
Preprint (Draft being sent to journal)
Authors
Trauger, John T.
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Wesley, A. Traub
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Date Acquired
August 24, 2013
Publication Date
April 12, 2007
Publication Information
Publication: Nature
Volume: 446
Subject Category
Astronomy
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other
Keywords
coronagraphic telescopes
exoplanets
Earth-like planets

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