Physics
Scientific paper
Apr 2007
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2007natur.446..771t&link_type=abstract
Nature, Volume 446, Issue 7137, pp. 771-773 (2007).
Physics
65
Scientific paper
The detection and characterization of an Earth-like planet orbiting a nearby star requires a telescope with an extraordinarily large contrast at small angular separations. At visible wavelengths, an Earth-like planet would be 1×10-10 times fainter than the star at angular separations of typically 0.1arcsecond or less. There are several proposed space telescope systems that could, in principle, achieve this. Here we report a laboratory experiment that reaches these limits. We have suppressed the diffracted and scattered light near a star-like source to a level of 6×10-10 times the peak intensity in individual coronagraph images. In a series of such images, together with simple image processing, we have effectively reduced this to a residual noise level of about 0.1×10-10. This demonstrates that a coronagraphic telescope in space could detect and spectroscopically characterize nearby exoplanetary systems, with the sensitivity to image an `Earth-twin' orbiting a nearby star.
Traub Wesley A.
Trauger John T.
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