Designing asymmetric and branched petals for planet-finding occulters

One of the proposed methods for finding small extrasolar planets is through use of an occulter, a spacecraft which flies in formation with a space-based telescope to block the light from a star, while leaving nearby planets unaffected. This is accomplished by placing the occulter far enough from the...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Optics express 2010-01, Vol.18 (2), p.523-543
Main Authors: Cady, Eric, Kasdin, N J, Shaklan, Stuart
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Algorithms
Astronomy - methods
Image Enhancement - methods
Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted - methods
Light
Planets
Refractometry - methods
Scattering, Radiation
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Summary:One of the proposed methods for finding small extrasolar planets is through use of an occulter, a spacecraft which flies in formation with a space-based telescope to block the light from a star, while leaving nearby planets unaffected. This is accomplished by placing the occulter far enough from the telescope to give it a small angular size, and by carefully choosing the shape to strongly suppress the starlight at the telescope aperture. For most designs, this shape takes the form of a number of bilaterally-symmetric structures called petals, arrayed about a circular central disk. In this paper, we show that the necessary number of petals may be reduced by the introduction of an asymmetry in the petal shape, and describe a a general procedure for producing such a shape by optimization for any occulter with petals. In addition, we show that permitting openings within each petal allows a number of additional modifications to be made without affecting the suppression.
ISSN:1094-4087
1094-4087
DOI:10.1364/OE.18.000523