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Issue A&A Volume 391, Number 1, August III 2002 Page(s) 379 - 395 Section Instruments, observational techniques and data processing DOI 10.1051/0004-6361:20020712

A&A 391, 379-395 (2002)
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361:20020712

A nulling wide field imager for exoplanets detection and general astrophysics

O. Guyon^{1, 2} and F. Roddier<sup>2

1</sup>  Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii, 640 N. A'ohoku Place, Hilo, HI 96720, USA
²  Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris 6, 4 Place Jussieu, 75005 Paris, France

(Received 19 February 2002 / Accepted 6 May 2002)

Abstract
We present a solution to obtain a high-resolution image of a wide field with the central source removed by destructive interference. The wide-field image is created by aperture synthesis with a rotating sparse array of telescopes in space. Nulling of the central source is achieved using a phase-mask coronagraph. The full (u,v) plane coverage delivered by the 60 m, six telescope array is particularly well-suited for the detection and characterization of exoplanets in the infrared (DARWIN and Terrestrial Planet Finder (TPF) missions) as well as for other generic science observations. Detection ( S/N=10) of an Earth-like planet is achieved in 10 hours with a m bandwidth at m.

Key words: techniques: interferometric -- instrumentation: high angular resolution

Offprint request: O. Guyon, guyon@ifa.hawaii.edu

© ESO 2002

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