An optical feasibility study for STARLITE: superluminous tomographic atmospheric reconstruction with laser-beacons for imaging terrestrial exoplanets

Adam B. Johnson; Christian Marois; William Thompson; Kate Jackson; Jean-Pierre Véran; Maaike A. van Kooten; Olivier Lardière; Darryl Gamroth; Colin Bradley

doi:10.1117/12.3018040

27 August 2024 An optical feasibility study for STARLITE: superluminous tomographic atmospheric reconstruction with laser-beacons for imaging terrestrial exoplanets

Adam B. Johnson, Christian Marois, William Thompson, Kate Jackson, Jean-Pierre Véran, Maaike A. van Kooten, Olivier Lardière, Darryl Gamroth, Colin Bradley

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 13097, Adaptive Optics Systems IX; 1309734 (2024) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.3018040
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2024, Yokohama, Japan

Conference Poster

Abstract

Detecting and characterizing Earth-size exoplanets by imaging around Sun-like stars to search for life signatures is a monumental challenge, requiring advanced coronagraph designs and picometer-level wavefront control to achieve 10¹⁰ contrast at separations of only a few lambda/D. While a dedicated space observatory may be required to achieve such extreme observations, a new concept is presented to achieve an intermediate sky-limited 10⁸ visible-band contrast using ground-based 8 to 30m class telescopes. STARLITE (Superluminous Tomographic Atmospheric Reconstruction with Laser-beacons for Imaging Terrestrial Exoplanets) consists of a satellite constellation located on a highly-elliptical, 350, 000km apogee orbit that will allow ∼hours-long observations of astronomical targets. When the constellation surrounds a target, the onboard laser on each satellite will generate extremely bright unresolved off-axis guide stars for adaptive optics, with an exoplanet imaging goal to reach closed-loop Angstrom-level residuals on a science target. In this paper I will present preliminary end-to-end simulations of a five laser-beacon optical system through the atmosphere to estimate the wavefront reconstruction accuracy towards a science target.

(2024) Published by SPIE. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.

Citation Download Citation

Adam B. Johnson, Christian Marois, William Thompson, Kate Jackson, Jean-Pierre Véran, Maaike A. van Kooten, Olivier Lardière, Darryl Gamroth, and Colin Bradley "An optical feasibility study for STARLITE: superluminous tomographic atmospheric reconstruction with laser-beacons for imaging terrestrial exoplanets", Proc. SPIE 13097, Adaptive Optics Systems IX, 1309734 (27 August 2024); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.3018040

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