Speckle nulling for exoplanet detection with space-based coronagraphic telescopes

Abstract

To detect Earth-like planets in the visible with a coronagraphic telescope, two major noise sources have to be overcome: the photon noise of the diffracted star light, and the speckle noise due to the star light scattered by instrumental defects. Coronagraphs tackle only the photon noise contribution. In order to decrease the speckle noise below the planet level, an active control of the wave front is required. We have developed analytical methods to measure and correct the speckle noise behind a coronagraph with a deformable mirror. In this paper, we summarize these methods, present numerical simulations, and discuss preliminary experimental results obtained with the High-Contrast Imaging Testbed at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

6 pages, 4 figures. This paper will be published in the proceedings of the conference Space Telescopes and Instrumentation I: Optical, Infrared, and Millimeter (SPIE 6265), part of SPIE's Astronomical Telescopes & Instrumentation, 24-31 May 2006, Orlando, FL

References in corpus (1)

• A Coronagraph with a Band-Limited Mask for Finding Terrestrial Planets

Cited by in corpus (4)

• Extreme adaptive optics imaging with a clear and well-corrected off-axis telescope sub-aperture
• Speckle noise reduction techniques for high-dynamic range imaging
• Review of high-contrast imaging systems for current and future ground-based and space-based telescopes II. Common path wavefront sensing/control and Coherent Differential Imaging
• High-contrast spectroscopy testbed for Segmented Telescopes: instrument overview and development progress