| DOI | Resolve DOI: https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2056747 |
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| Author | Search for: Marois, Christian1; Search for: Bradley, Colin; Search for: Pazder, John1; Search for: Nash, Reston; Search for: Metchev, Stanimir; Search for: Grandmont, Frédéric; Search for: Maire, Anne-Lise; Search for: Belikov, Ruslan; Search for: Macintosh, Bruce; Search for: Currie, Thayne; Search for: Galicher, Raphaël; Search for: Marchis, Franck; Search for: Mawet, Dimitri; Search for: Serabyn, Eugene; Search for: Steinbring, Eric1 |
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| Name affiliation | - National Research Council of Canada. National Science Infrastructure
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| Format | Text, Article |
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| Conference | Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2014: Optical, Infrared, and Millimeter Wave, June 22-27, 2014 |
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| Subject | Adaptive optics; Astronomy; Extrasolar planets; Meteorological balloons; Millimeter waves; Space telescopes; Wavefronts; Coronagraph; Exo-planets; High contrast imaging; Planetary system; Space observatories; Wave front control; Balloons |
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| Abstract | Detecting light reflected from exoplanets by direct imaging is the next major milestone in the search for, and characterization of, an Earth twin. Due to the high-risk and cost associated with satellites and limitations imposed by the atmosphere for ground-based instruments, we propose a bottom-up approach to reach that ultimate goal with an endeavor named MAPLE. MAPLE first project is a stratospheric balloon experiment called MAPLE-50. MAPLE-50 consists of a 50 cm diameter off-axis telescope working in the near-UV. The advantages of the near-UV are a small inner working angle and an improved contrast for blue planets. Along with the sophisticated tracking system to mitigate balloon pointing errors, MAPLE-50 will have a deformable mirror, a vortex coronograph, and a self-coherent camera as a focal plane wavefront-sensor which employs an Electron Multiplying CCD (EMCCD) as the science detector. The EMCCD will allow photon counting at kHz rates, thereby closely tracking telescope and instrument-bench-induced aberrations as they evolve with time. In addition, the EMCCD will acquire the science data with almost no read noise penalty. To mitigate risk and lower costs, MAPLE-50 will at first have a single optical channel with a minimum of moving parts. The goal is to reach a few times 109 contrast in 25 h worth of flying time, allowing direct detection of Jovians around the nearest stars. Once the 50 cm infrastructure has been validated, the telescope diameter will then be increased to a 1.5 m diameter (MAPLE-150) to reach 1010 contrast and have the capability to image another Earth. |
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| Publication date | 2014-08-28 |
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| Publisher | SPIE |
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| In | |
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| Series | |
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| Language | English |
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| Peer reviewed | Yes |
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| NPARC number | 21275481 |
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| Export citation | Export as RIS |
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| Report a correction | Report a correction |
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| Record identifier | 02121eec-0c66-4a85-a2fc-6af621a73f5e |
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| Record created | 2015-07-14 |
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| Record modified | 2020-04-22 |
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