THE LYOT PROJECT:TOWARD EXOPLANET IMAGES AND SPECTROSCOPY

摘要

We describe the opto-mechanical design, expected performance, and a progress report on the completion of a new near-infrared coronagraph designed and optimized to operate in tandem with the Advanced Electro-Optical System at the Maui Space Surveillance System. This coronagraph includes a number of novel features, such as active optical alignment and a second stage tip/tilt loop. The design is complete and construction has begun. We expect first light in fall 2003, when we will commence a survey for extremely faint objects, such as brown dwarfs large planets, and disks orbiting nearby stars. This instrument will be more sensitive, by almost a factor of ten, than any other existing instrument in the 0.2 to 1.5 arcsec range of separations from the stars. Key enabling technologies for exoplanetary science are adaptive optics (AO) and coronagraphy, which deliver the high contrast necessary for the discovery and characterization of faint stellar companions and circumstellar disks in the solar neighborhood. Among the AO systems available to astronomers, AEOS is unique because it delivers very high order wavefront correction; our program, to build and deploy an AO optimized coronagraph, exploits the full astronomical potential of AEOS and represents a critical step toward the long-term goal of directly imaging and studying extrasolar planets.