Exoplanet Imaging: a technological and scientific road-map for finding Life signatures on other Worlds
| Main Authors: | Marois, Christian, Gerard, Benjamin, Thompson, William, Dong, Ruobing, Metchev, Stanimir, van der Marel, Nienke, Sivanandam, Suresh, Baron, Frederique, Rowe, Jason, Chapman, Scott, Grandmont, Frederic, Lee, Eve, Macintosh, Bruce, Roberts, Scott, Benneke, Bjorn, Blain, Celia, Boley, Aaron C., Bradley, Colin, Burley, Greg, Butko, Adam, Cook, Neil, Cowan, Nicolas, Doyon, Rene, Goldblatt, Colin, Hardy, Tim, Lardiere, Olivier, Matthews, Brenda, Millar-Blanchar, Max, Veran, Jean-Pierre, Artigau, Etienne, Thibault, Simon |
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| Format: | Report Journal |
| Bahasa: | eng |
| Terbitan: |
, 2019
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: |
https://zenodo.org/record/3827512 |
| ctrlnum |
3827512 |
|---|---|
| fullrecord |
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<dc schemaLocation="http://www.openarchives.org/OAI/2.0/oai_dc/ http://www.openarchives.org/OAI/2.0/oai_dc.xsd"><creator>Marois, Christian</creator><creator>Gerard, Benjamin</creator><creator>Thompson, William</creator><creator>Dong, Ruobing</creator><creator>Metchev, Stanimir</creator><creator>van der Marel, Nienke</creator><creator>Sivanandam, Suresh</creator><creator>Baron, Frederique</creator><creator>Rowe, Jason</creator><creator>Chapman, Scott</creator><creator>Grandmont, Frederic</creator><creator>Lee, Eve</creator><creator>Macintosh, Bruce</creator><creator>Roberts, Scott</creator><creator>Benneke, Bjorn</creator><creator>Blain, Celia</creator><creator>Boley, Aaron C.</creator><creator>Bradley, Colin</creator><creator>Burley, Greg</creator><creator>Butko, Adam</creator><creator>Cook, Neil</creator><creator>Cowan, Nicolas</creator><creator>Doyon, Rene</creator><creator>Goldblatt, Colin</creator><creator>Hardy, Tim</creator><creator>Lardiere, Olivier</creator><creator>Matthews, Brenda</creator><creator>Millar-Blanchar, Max</creator><creator>Veran, Jean-Pierre</creator><creator>Artigau, Etienne</creator><creator>Thibault, Simon</creator><date>2019-10-21</date><description>The search for life outside our solar system is one of the great frontiers in astronomy.Confirming life and habitability of planets will require a detailed spectroscopic analysis to search for biomarkers over a wide range of wavelengths, from the visible to the thermal infrared. While many observing techniques are being pursued towards that goal, the exoplanet imaging technique, consisting of directly detecting the exoplanet light against the bright diffracted stellar halo, offers several advantages, including the detection and characterization of Earth-sized planets, orbiting around a wide range of stellar hosts without requiring any special orbital alignments.
Exoplanet imaging requires overcoming two main challenges, (1) the telescope resolution limit, motivating a strong interest by the community to operate on the largest possible telescopes, and (2) contrast—planets can be 10^5 (gas giants) to 10^10 (rocky planets) times fainter than the host star. High-contrast imaging instruments on ground-based telescopes typically include an adaptive optics system to measure and correct (at kHz speeds) the turbulent atmosphere, a coronagraph to block the bright central star, and an imaging spectrograph.
Many breakthrough scientific discoveries were achieved in exoplanet imaging by Canadians during the last decade, from new gas giant planets to leading international campaigns using both ground- and space-based observatories. With the deployment of the Gemini Planet Imager (GPI) at the Gemini South observatory, an instrument part of the first generation of facility-class high-contrast imaging instruments, Canadians are at the forefront of the field. While GPI has achieved a contrast gain of more than 100x compared to previous instruments, new techniques must be developed if we are to detect rocky planets. Imaging rocky planets will require new solutions to overcome the “speckle noise” contrast challenge, improving sensitivity by 10^3 for M dwarfs to 10^5 for Sun-like stars.
The NRC, the Canadian Universities, and industry have been developing key technologies that are crucial for high-contrast imaging. New developments in speckle subtraction include the invention of new adaptive optics systems and coronagraphic masks, powerful focal plane wavefront sensors, and promising new observing methods, such as the high-dispersion spectroscopic technique. The community is ready to integrate all the latest promising technologies into facility-class instruments, but how to integrate such complex approaches is still an open question.
The first high-contrast imaging Canadian laboratory, NEW EARTH, has been recently set up at NRC to test and validate new technologies. The University of Laval-led HiCIBaS’ stratospheric telescope was also developed to validate space technologies. With these foundations now in place, the Canadian community is now in a position to develop and test the new technologies needed to directly image rocky exoplanets.
The next decade will see new science capabilities and exciting exoplanet science discoveries with new instruments, including from a first set of GPI upgrades and the launch of the JWST and WFIRST. ELT telescopes should see their first light before the end of the decade, and their dedicated high-contrast imaging instruments should be well in their design/construction phase. Large flagship exoplanet imaging space missions, such as HABEX and LUVOIR, are being studied in the US, but it is still unclear if Canada will be a partner of these. Canadians are now well-positioned to develop and contribute key hardware to these initiatives, but some challenges still remain.
We make important recommendations to support the essential high-contrast imaging R&D in the next decade for: developing technologies to reach contrast levels sufficient to image rocky planets and find life for both ground- and space-based telescopes, strategic hires in the field, keeping Gemini/GPI access for the next decade, modifying the funding system to better prepare for large Canadian instrument infrastructures, securing an ELT early access, and the development of long term commitments (pathfinders like HiCIBaS, to flagship missions) by CSA. With this emphasis, Canadians will be positioned at the forefront of the search for life elsewhere in the Universe for decades to come.</description><description>White paper identifier W059</description><identifier>https://zenodo.org/record/3827512</identifier><identifier>10.5281/zenodo.3827512</identifier><identifier>oai:zenodo.org:3827512</identifier><language>eng</language><relation>doi:10.5281/zenodo.3827511</relation><relation>url:https://zenodo.org/communities/lrp2020</relation><rights>info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess</rights><rights>https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode</rights><subject>astrophysics</subject><title>Exoplanet Imaging: a technological and scientific road-map for finding Life signatures on other Worlds.</title><type>Report:Report</type><type>Report:Report</type><recordID>3827512</recordID></dc>
|
| language |
eng |
| format |
Report:Report Report Journal:Journal Journal |
| author |
Marois, Christian Gerard, Benjamin Thompson, William Dong, Ruobing Metchev, Stanimir van der Marel, Nienke Sivanandam, Suresh Baron, Frederique Rowe, Jason Chapman, Scott Grandmont, Frederic Lee, Eve Macintosh, Bruce Roberts, Scott Benneke, Bjorn Blain, Celia Boley, Aaron C. Bradley, Colin Burley, Greg Butko, Adam Cook, Neil Cowan, Nicolas Doyon, Rene Goldblatt, Colin Hardy, Tim Lardiere, Olivier Matthews, Brenda Millar-Blanchar, Max Veran, Jean-Pierre Artigau, Etienne Thibault, Simon |
| title |
Exoplanet Imaging: a technological and scientific road-map for finding Life signatures on other Worlds |
| publishDate |
2019 |
| topic |
astrophysics |
| url |
https://zenodo.org/record/3827512 |
| contents |
The search for life outside our solar system is one of the great frontiers in astronomy.Confirming life and habitability of planets will require a detailed spectroscopic analysis to search for biomarkers over a wide range of wavelengths, from the visible to the thermal infrared. While many observing techniques are being pursued towards that goal, the exoplanet imaging technique, consisting of directly detecting the exoplanet light against the bright diffracted stellar halo, offers several advantages, including the detection and characterization of Earth-sized planets, orbiting around a wide range of stellar hosts without requiring any special orbital alignments.
Exoplanet imaging requires overcoming two main challenges, (1) the telescope resolution limit, motivating a strong interest by the community to operate on the largest possible telescopes, and (2) contrast—planets can be 10^5 (gas giants) to 10^10 (rocky planets) times fainter than the host star. High-contrast imaging instruments on ground-based telescopes typically include an adaptive optics system to measure and correct (at kHz speeds) the turbulent atmosphere, a coronagraph to block the bright central star, and an imaging spectrograph.
Many breakthrough scientific discoveries were achieved in exoplanet imaging by Canadians during the last decade, from new gas giant planets to leading international campaigns using both ground- and space-based observatories. With the deployment of the Gemini Planet Imager (GPI) at the Gemini South observatory, an instrument part of the first generation of facility-class high-contrast imaging instruments, Canadians are at the forefront of the field. While GPI has achieved a contrast gain of more than 100x compared to previous instruments, new techniques must be developed if we are to detect rocky planets. Imaging rocky planets will require new solutions to overcome the “speckle noise” contrast challenge, improving sensitivity by 10^3 for M dwarfs to 10^5 for Sun-like stars.
The NRC, the Canadian Universities, and industry have been developing key technologies that are crucial for high-contrast imaging. New developments in speckle subtraction include the invention of new adaptive optics systems and coronagraphic masks, powerful focal plane wavefront sensors, and promising new observing methods, such as the high-dispersion spectroscopic technique. The community is ready to integrate all the latest promising technologies into facility-class instruments, but how to integrate such complex approaches is still an open question.
The first high-contrast imaging Canadian laboratory, NEW EARTH, has been recently set up at NRC to test and validate new technologies. The University of Laval-led HiCIBaS’ stratospheric telescope was also developed to validate space technologies. With these foundations now in place, the Canadian community is now in a position to develop and test the new technologies needed to directly image rocky exoplanets.
The next decade will see new science capabilities and exciting exoplanet science discoveries with new instruments, including from a first set of GPI upgrades and the launch of the JWST and WFIRST. ELT telescopes should see their first light before the end of the decade, and their dedicated high-contrast imaging instruments should be well in their design/construction phase. Large flagship exoplanet imaging space missions, such as HABEX and LUVOIR, are being studied in the US, but it is still unclear if Canada will be a partner of these. Canadians are now well-positioned to develop and contribute key hardware to these initiatives, but some challenges still remain.
We make important recommendations to support the essential high-contrast imaging R&D in the next decade for: developing technologies to reach contrast levels sufficient to image rocky planets and find life for both ground- and space-based telescopes, strategic hires in the field, keeping Gemini/GPI access for the next decade, modifying the funding system to better prepare for large Canadian instrument infrastructures, securing an ELT early access, and the development of long term commitments (pathfinders like HiCIBaS, to flagship missions) by CSA. With this emphasis, Canadians will be positioned at the forefront of the search for life elsewhere in the Universe for decades to come. White paper identifier W059 |
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