High-Contrast Testbeds for Future Space-Based Direct Imaging Exoplanet Missions

Abstract

Instrumentation techniques in the field of direct imaging of exoplanets have greatly advanced over the last two decades. Two of the four NASA-commissioned large concept studies involve a high-contrast instrument for the imaging and spectral characterization of exo-Earths from space: LUVOIR and HabEx. This whitepaper describes the status of 8 optical testbeds in the US and France currently in operation to experimentally validate the necessary technologies to image exo-Earths from space. They explore two complementary axes of research: (i) coronagraph designs and manufacturing and (ii) active wavefront correction methods and technologies. Several instrument architectures are currently being analyzed in parallel to provide more degrees of freedom for designing the future coronagraphic instruments. The necessary level of performance has already been demonstrated in-laboratory for clear off-axis telescopes (HabEx-like) and important efforts are currently in development to reproduce this accomplishment on segmented and/or on-axis telescopes (LUVOIR-like) over the next two years.

Astro2020 Decadal Survey call for Activities, Projects, or State of the Profession Consideration - APC White Paper. To be published in the Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society (BAAS). 16 pages, 5 figures

References in corpus (1)

• Calibration of quasi-static aberrations in exoplanet direct-imaging instruments with a Zernike phase-mask sensor. II. Concept validation with ZELDA on VLT/SPHERE

Cited by in corpus (13)

• Redundant-Baseline Calibration of the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array
• Intensity Mapping as a Probe of Axion Dark Matter
• The Tianlai Dish Pathfinder Array: design, operation and performance of a prototype transit radio interferometer
• From EMBER to FIRE: predicting high resolution baryon fields from dark matter simulations with Deep Learning
• Coupling parsec and gigaparsec scales: primordial non-Gaussianity with multi-tracer intensity mapping
• Cross-correlating 21 cm and galaxy surveys: implications for cosmology and astrophysics
• Imaging exoplanets with coronagraphic instruments
• Beyond $\Lambda$CDM with HI intensity mapping: robustness of cosmological constraints in the presence of astrophysics
• Quasi-equilibrium models of high-redshift disc galaxy evolution
• ART${}^2$: A 3D Parallel Multi-wavelength Radiative Transfer Code for Continuum and Atomic and Molecular Lines
• Cosmic Filaments from Cosmic Strings
• HIR4: Cosmological signatures imprinted on the cross correlation between 21-cm map and galaxy clustering
• Fourth-order Coronagraph for High-Contrast Imaging of Exoplanets with Off-axis Segmented Telescopes