Interferometry spots an exoplanet

Exoplanet Interferometry Technology Milestone #5 Whitepaper Spectral Fitting and Planet Detection Demonstration

JPL Document D - 60326 Exoplanet Interferometry Technology Milestone # 3 Report Broadband Starlight

This document reports the achievement of Exoplanet Interferometry Technology Milestone #3, a demonstration of broadband starlight suppression in the mid-infrared. We review the milestone specification from the Milestone Whitepaper (October 10, 2007), summarize the experiments performed in the Adaptive Nuller testbed, detail the procedures and analysis of the resulting data, and describe and pre...

The effect of the longitudinal polarization component in multi-axial nulling interferometry for exoplanet detection

In the past decade, exoplanet detection has drawn a lot of attention. Since the discovery of the first exoplanet by Mayor & Queloz (1995), more than two hundred planets have been detected. However, direct detection of Earth-like exoplanets remains very challenging, mainly because of the huge brightness contrast between the star and the planet (106 at 10 μm and significantly higher in the visibl...

Exoplanet atmosphere. Thermal structure of an exoplanet atmosphere from phase-resolved emission spectroscopy.

Exoplanets that orbit close to their host stars are much more highly irradiated than their solar system counterparts. Understanding the thermal structures and appearances of these planets requires investigating how their atmospheres respond to such extreme stellar forcing. We present spectroscopic thermal emission measurements as a function of orbital phase ("phase-curve observations") for the ...

Exoplanet Investigations

Characterizing planets orbiting stars beyond the sun—exoplanets—is one of the scientific frontiers pioneered using Hubble observations. When Webb becomes operational, the current Hubble results will be expanded to an astonishing degree—far more than would be expected based on the increase in aperture. Webb’s sensitivity in the infrared, and especially its infrared spectroscopic capability, will...