Portable Adaptive Optics for Exoplanet Imaging

Abstract

The Portable Adaptive Optics (PAO) is a low-cost and compact system, designed for 4-meter class telescopes that have no Adaptive Optics (AO), because of the physical space limitation at the Nasmyth or Cassegrain focus and the historically high cost of the conventional AO. The initial scientific observations of the PAO are focused on the direct imaging of exoplanets and sub-stellar companions. This paper discusses the PAO concept and the associated high-contrast imaging performance in our recent observational runs. PAO is delivering a Strehl ratio better than $60\%$ in $H$ band under median seeing conditions of $1^{\prime \prime }$. Combined with our dedicated image rotation and subtraction (IRS) technique and the optimized IRS (O-IRS) algorithm, the averaged contrast ratio for a $5\le V{}_{\mathrm{mag}}\le 9$ primary star is $1.3\times 10^{-5}$ and $3.3\times 10^{-6}$ at angular distance of $0.36^{\prime \prime }$ under exposure time of 7 minutes and 2 hours, respectively. PAO has successfully revealed the known exoplanet of $\kappa$ And b, in our recent observation at 3.5-meter ARC telescope at Apache Point Observatory. We have performed the associated astrometry and photometry analysis of the recovered $\kappa$ And b planet, which gives a projected separation of $0.984\pm 0.05^{\prime \prime }$, a position angle of $51.1\pm 0.5^{\circ }$, and a mass of $10.15_{-1.255}^{+2.19}{M}_{\mathrm{Jup}}$. These results demonstrate that PAO can be used for direct imaging of exoplanets with medium-sized telescopes.

12 pages, 12 figures, 3 tables, published in RAA

References in corpus (14)

• Direct Imaging of Multiple Planets Orbiting the Star HR 8799
• Images of a fourth planet orbiting HR 8799
• Theory of Low-Mass Stars and Substellar Objects
• Discovery and spectroscopy of the young Jovian planet 51 Eri b with the Gemini Planet Imager
• A new algorithm for point spread function subtraction in high-contrast imaging: a demonstration with angular differential imaging
• Spectral and Photometric Diagnostics of Giant Planet Formation Scenarios
• PynPoint: An Image Processing Package for Finding Exoplanets
• Direct Imaging Discovery of a `Super-Jupiter' Around the late B-Type Star Kappa And
• Calibration and Pre-Compensation of Non-Common Path Aberrations for extreme Adaptive Optics
• Speckle Suppression Through Dual Imaging Polarimetry, and a Ground-Based Image of the HR 4796A Circumstellar Disk
• Characterization of the gaseous companion κ Andromedae b: New Keck and LBTI high-contrast observations
• On-sky performance analysis of the vector Apodizing Phase Plate coronagraph on MagAO/Clio2
• A High-contrast Imaging Algorithm: Optimized Image Rotation and Subtraction
• An iterative wave-front sensing algorithm for high-contrast imaging systems

Cited by in corpus (2)

• Performance Calibration of the Wavefront Sensor's EMCCD Detector for the Cool Planets Imaging Coronagraph Aboard CSST
• Optimization design and analysis for the mechanical test platform of scientific probe module of the Cool Planet Imaging Coronagraph