地球に似た太陽系外惑星の画像を撮影する能力の実験室での実証

John T Trauger¹, Wesley A Traub

¹Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, California 91109, USA. john.trauger@jpl.nasa.gov

Nature

|April 13, 2007

まとめ

地球のような惑星を検出するには,高度な望遠鏡が必要です. 新しい実験室での実験では,恒星の光を抑制する力のあるコロナグラフィック技術が実証され,系外惑星の画像撮影の道が開けています.

科学分野:

天文学と天体物理学について
光学工学は,光学工学である.

背景:

地球のような系外惑星を検出するには,非常に高コントラストの画像処理能力が必要です.
地球のような惑星は,小さな角分離 (0.1弧秒) で宿主星と比較して,非常に薄い (10^-10) です.

研究の目的:

地球のような系外惑星を検出するために必要なコントラストを達成できるコロナグラフィック技術を実験的に実証する.
エクソプラネットの特徴付けのための宇宙ベースのコロナグラフィック望遠鏡の実現可能性を検証する.

主な方法:

星のような源の近くに散乱光や散乱光を抑制するために実験室での実験を活用しました.
極度の光抑制を達成するために,冠状図法的なアプローチを採用しました.
残留ノイズをさらに減らすために画像処理技術を適用します.

主要な成果:

個々の冠動脈写真のピーク強度の6×10−10倍に光の抑制を達成しました.
画像処理により,残留ノイズが約0.1 x 10^-10に減少しました.
地球のような惑星を検出するために必要なコントラストの限界に達する能力を実証した.

結論:

実験結果は,コロナグラフィック宇宙望遠鏡が,系外惑星検出に必要なコントラストを達成できることを確認しています.
この技術は,地球の双子星を含む,近くの系外惑星系の潜在的スペクトル学的特徴を可能にします.
この研究は,地球以外での生命の探求のための重要な技術的進歩を検証しています.

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