An infrared integral field spectrograph specialized for speckle suppression and the direct detection of extrasolar planets

Quasi-static speckles are the main source of noise preventing the direct detection of exoplanets around bright stars. We are investigating the use of an infrared (1.5-2.4 μm) integral field spectrograph (IFS) specialised for speckle suppression and the detection of self-luminous giant planets. This paper presents the optical design and laboratory results obtained with a TIGER-type IFS prototype based on a microlens array. A similar IFS will be used for the Gemini Planet Imager (GPI). Preliminary speckle-suppression performances of the IFS along with simulations are presented.

[1]  R. Gilliland,et al.  Detection of an Extrasolar Planet Atmosphere , 2001, astro-ph/0111544.

[2]  M. Mayor,et al.  A Jupiter-mass companion to a solar-type star , 1995, Nature.

[3]  C. Marois,et al.  TRIDENT: an Infrared Differential Imaging Camera Optimized for the Detection of Methanated Substellar Companions , 2005 .

[4]  E. Pecontal,et al.  3D spectrography at high spatial resolution. I. Concept and realization of the integral field spectrograph TIGER. , 1995 .

[5]  Gordon A. H. Walker,et al.  Speckle Noise and the Detection of Faint Companions , 1999 .

[6]  Laird M. Close,et al.  A novel simultaneous differential imager for the direct imaging of giant planets , 2004, SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation.

[7]  Michael Shao,et al.  Extreme adaptive optics for the Thirty Meter Telescope , 2006, SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation.

[8]  Haimin Wang,et al.  Spectral Subtraction: A New Approach to Remove Low- and High-Order Speckle Noise , 2006 .

[9]  Lisa Poyneer,et al.  The Gemini Planet Imager , 2006, SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation.

[10]  University of British Columbia,et al.  Effects of Quasi-Static Aberrations in Faint Companion Searches , 2002 .

[11]  Drake Deming,et al.  Infrared radiation from an extrasolar planet , 2005, Nature.

[12]  David Charbonneau,et al.  Detection of Thermal Emission from an Extrasolar Planet , 2005 .

[13]  O. Szewczyk,et al.  Discovery of a cool planet of 5.5 Earth masses through gravitational microlensing , 2006, Nature.

[14]  D. Mouillet,et al.  A giant planet candidate near a young brown dwarf - Direct VLT/NACO observations using IR wavefront sensing , 2004 .

[15]  C. Marois,et al.  Efficient Speckle Noise Attenuation in Faint Companion Imaging , 2000 .

[16]  H. Ford,et al.  Imaging Spectroscopy for Extrasolar Planet Detection , 2002, astro-ph/0209078.