Other
Scientific paper
Sep 1999
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1999aas...19411201s&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society Meeting 194, #112.01
Other
Scientific paper
The challenge in detecting extrasolar planets is separating dim sources from nearby bright ones. The challenge in very small scale angular resolution is separating comparable brightness sources that are extremely close to each other. Large telescopes facilitate this by reducing the overlap in the diffraction patterns of the sources. A complimentary approach comes from employing occultations. Intercepting the starlight outside the telescope eases the telescope's optical specifications for high contrast observations. Furthermore the limits on angular resolution are determined by the size, velocity, and geometry of the occulter, not by the size of the telescope. Because occulters are light and optically robust, large space telescopes can be aided dramatically by larger occulters at a relatively low cost. Here we discuss the Big Occulting Steerable Satellite (BOSS), under study at JPL for use with an NGST class telescope, and the challenges of scaling these ideas. We find that Jupiter-like planets around stars out to about 20 parsecs and Earth-like planets out to 5--10 parsecs could be directly imaged with the aid of BOSS. We also find that extremely small scale angular resolution of sources can be attained.
Copi Craig J.
Starkman Glenn D.
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