Gearing up the SPHERE

Direct imaging and spectral characterisation of exoplanets is one of the most exciting, but also one of the most challenging areas, in modern astronomy. The challenge is to overcome the very large contrast between the host star and its planet seen at very small angular separations. This article reports on the progress made in the construction of the second generation VLT instrument SPHERE, the Spectro-Polarimetric High-contrast Exoplanet REsearch instrument. SPHERE is expected to be commissioned on the VLT in 2013.