Report - School of Physics
Report - School of Physics
Report - School of Physics
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Table 4: A summary <strong>of</strong> planned or operational direct searches. Space astrometry and transit<br />
searches are covered elsewhere, and are excluded from this table. The first category are interferometric<br />
or multi-telescope projects; the second are single telescope direct methods; the third are in<br />
the radio or sub-mm.<br />
Name PI Telecope Comments<br />
Darwin ESA 3 × 3.5 m IR interferometer in L2, launch goal 2015<br />
TPF-I NASA several 3–4 m IR interferometer launch before 2020<br />
AMBER Petrov VLT Operations recently started<br />
ANI Hinz 6.5 m Tests on nulling in 1997–98<br />
AIC Gay 1.5 m First test runs in 1997<br />
BLINC Hinz 6.5 m Instrument ready for use at MMT<br />
Carlina Le Coroller hypertelescope First fringes with 2 × 24 cm mirrors, 2004<br />
Keck i/f 2 × 10 m First fringes 2001, shared risk science 2002<br />
KEOPS 1 km array Time frame 2015+<br />
LBT 2 × 8.4 m First light planned for Dec 2004<br />
PTI Colavita 3 × 0.4 m K-band stellar interferometer, ∼100 µas<br />
VLTI Glindemann 8/1.8 m MIDI operational since 2003<br />
TPF-C NASA 4–6 m Visible light coronograph launch 2014<br />
CHEOPS Feldt 8 m Proposal for VLT instrument<br />
EXPORT Eiroa several Observations in 1998/99<br />
JWST NASA 6.5 m IR-optimised telescope in L2, launch 2011<br />
Lyot Project Oppenheimer 3.6 m First light April 2003<br />
MIRLIN Ressler 3, 5, 10 m Operational since 2001<br />
Trojan Caton 0.45/0.7 m 2-colour photometry <strong>of</strong> 20 eclipsing binary<br />
ALMA ESO 64 × 12 m First light planned for 2007<br />
LOFAR 100 antennae Decametric emission: initial 2006/full 2008<br />
Nancay<br />
radio arrays<br />
Pulsar Planets Wolszczan 305 m Planets around PSR B1257+12<br />
nulling demonstrator for Darwin called GENIE which will be used on the VLT.<br />
Other searches use a coronographic approach to block out the star’s light. The Lyot<br />
project’s coronograph has now been declared fully operational and will conduct a<br />
survey <strong>of</strong> 300 nearby stars.<br />
NAOS-CONICA: NAOS-CONICA (NACO) is installed on UT3 at the VLT. It<br />
is an adaptive optics system working in the 1–5 µm range, with a Shack-Hartmann<br />
wavefront analyser operating in the visible or near-infrared. The instrument is<br />
equipped with a large collection <strong>of</strong> broad- and narrow-band filters for imaging, and<br />
a set <strong>of</strong> grisms for low-dispersion spectroscopy. It also features a polarimetric system.<br />
In good conditions, with a bright reference star, a Strehl ratio <strong>of</strong> ∼ 0.5 is achievable.<br />
Two modes are <strong>of</strong> special interest for planetary observations: (1) a coronographic<br />
mode: a classical Lyot-type instrument with a circular focal spot (<strong>of</strong> 0.7 or 1.4 arcsec)<br />
is used together with an undersized pupil mask. A four quadrant phase mask<br />
(which introduces a shift <strong>of</strong> π to the wavefront) is being commissioned. It reduces<br />
the light <strong>of</strong> the central star by a factor <strong>of</strong> ∼ 70, and permits observations within<br />
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