The Extrasolar Planet Observatory (ExPO) is envisioned as a Discovery-class space telescope for the direct detection and characterization of extra-solar planets. ExPO would also demonstrate the feasibility of a number of technologies which could be critical to the ultimate success of the Terrestrial Planet Finder (TPF) mission. ExPO would detect a wide range of planet types (gas planets, ice planets, super-Earths and Earth-like planets) in the visible and near infrared, and do spectrophotometry and spectroscopy on many of the detected objects.). The apodized square aperture (ASA) coronagraphic space telescope is designed to resolve faint companions near much brighter point-like sources by achieving very high dynamic range (contrast >10~9) imaging at separations as small as 0.1 arcsec.
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