Astrophysics, abstract
astro-ph/0606397

From: Olivier Guyon [view email]

Date: Fri, 16 Jun 2006 03:18:02 GMT (650kb)

Telescope to Observe Planetary Systems (TOPS): a high throughput 1.2-m visible telescope with a small inner working angle

Authors: Olivier Guyon (a, b), James R.P. Angel (b), Charles Bowers (c), James Burge (b), Adam Burrows (b), Johanan Codona (b), Thomas Greene (d), Masanori Iye (e), James Kasting (f), Hubert Martin (b), Donald W. McCarthy, Jr. (b), Victoria Meadows (g), Michael Meyer (b), Eugene A. Pluzhnik (a), Norman Sleep (h), Tony Spears (i), Motohide Tamura (e), Domenick Tenerelli (j), Robert Vanderbei (k), Bruce Woodgate (c), Robert A. Woodruff (j), Neville J. Woolf (b)/ ((a) Subaru Telescope, (b) Steward Observatory, The University of Arizona, (c) Goddard Space Flight Center, (d) Ames Research Center, (e) National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, (f) Pennsylvania State University, (g) IPAC, Caltech, (i) LOGYX, (j) Lockheed Martin Space Corporation, (k) Princeton Univ.)

Comments: 12 pages, SPIE conference proceeding, May 2006, Orlando, Florida

The Telescope to Observe Planetary Systems (TOPS) is a proposed space mission to image in the visible (0.4-0.9 micron) planetary systems of nearby stars simultaneously in 16 spectral bands (resolution R~20). For the ~10 most favorable stars, it will have the sensitivity to discover 2 R_E rocky planets within habitable zones and characterize their surfaces or atmospheres through spectrophotometry. Many more massive planets and debris discs will be imaged and characterized for the first time. With a 1.2m visible telescope, the proposed mission achieves its power by exploiting the most efficient and robust coronagraphic and wavefront control techniques. The Phase-Induced Amplitude Apodization (PIAA) coronagraph used by TOPS allows planet detection at 2 lambda/d with nearly 100% throughput and preserves the telescope angular resolution. An efficient focal plane wavefront sensing scheme accurately measures wavefront aberrations which are fed back to the telescope active primary mirror. Fine wavefront control is also performed independently in each of 4 spectral channels, resulting in a system that is robust to wavefront chromaticity.

http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0606397