Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Jan 2010
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010aas...21542125s&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #215, #421.25; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 42, p.290
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
In this poster we present the New Worlds Probe (NWP) concept for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), whereby we use an external occulter (or starshade) to cast a shadow from the star onto the telescope, canceling the direct starlight while the light from an orbiting extrasolar planet is not affected. This concept enables JWST to take images and spectra of extrasolar planets with sufficient contrast and inner working angle to be able to discover exoplanets down to the size of the Earth in the habitable zones of nearby stars. JWST's instruments are appropriate for achieving low resolution spectroscopy (R 40) of these planets, thereby addressing a series of fundamental questions. Are there planets in the habitable zones of nearby stars? What is the composition of their atmospheres? What are the brightness and morphologies of exozodiacal disks around nearby stars? What are the masses and compositions of currently known giant planets from doppler measurements? We study the starshade optimization for JWST given its instrumental constraints, and show that the modest optical quality of the telescope at short wavelength does not impact the possibility of using a starshade. We propose a solution to enable imaging and spectroscopy using the planned target acquisition filters. We discuss possible time allocations among various science goals based on exposure time estimates and total available observing time. The starshade can be launched up to 3 years after JWST and rendezvous with the telescope in orbit around L2.
Brown Robert A.
Cash Webster
Glassman Tiffany
Jordan Ian
Lo Amy
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