A 'PLANET FINDER' INSTRUMENT FOR THE ESO VLT

摘要

In late 2001, ESO issued a call for preliminary proposals to equip one of their VLTs with a second-generation instrument labelled the "Planet Finder". It is intended to replace the current adaptive optics system NACO from ～ 2008 and consists of a so-called "extreme" AO system plus a contrast enhancing device which should make the instrument specialized in "imaging faint objects next to bright stars, ideally down to planets". Two preliminary proposals were received in response to the call. One by a french-lead consortium based at the Observatoire de Grenoble, and another one by a german-lead consortium with headquarters in Heidelberg. This paper desccribes in some detail the second one, which has been named CHEOPS - "CHaracterization of Extrasolar Planets by Opto-Infrared Polarimetry and Spectroscopy" We are presenting the scientific motivation for such an instrument - including "secondary" topics, its expected return, and our current baseline for the design of such a device.