The MMT Adaptive Optics exoPlanet Characterization System (MAPS) is a comprehensive update to the first generation MMT adaptive optics system (MMTAO), designed to produce a facility class suite of instruments whose purpose is to image nearby exoplanets. The system’s adaptive secondary mirror (ASM), although comprised in part of legacy components from the MMTAO ASM, represents a major leap forward in design, structure and function. The subject of this paper is the design, operation, achievements and technical issues of the MAPS adaptive secondary mirror. We discuss laboratory preparation for on-sky engineering runs, the results of those runs and the issues we discovered, what we learned about those issues in a follow up period of laboratory work, and the steps we are taking to mitigate them.
The MMT Adaptive optics exoPlanet characterization System (MAPS) is an exoplanet characterization program that encompasses instrument development, observational science, and education. The instrument we are developing for the 6.5m MMT observatory is multi-faceted, including a refurbished 336-actuator adaptive secondary mirror (ASM); two pyramid wavefront sensors (PyWFS's); a 1-kHz adaptive optics (AO) control loop; a high-resolution and long-wavelength upgrade to the Arizona infraRed Imager and Echelle Spectrograph (ARIES); and a new-AO-optimized upgrade to the MMT-sensitive polarimeter (MMT-Pol). With the completed MAPS instrument, we will execute a 60-night science program to characterize the atmospheric composition and dynamics of ~50-100 planets around other stars. The project is approaching first light, anticipated for Summer/Fall of 2022. With the electrical and optical tests complete and passing the review milestone for the ASM’s development, it is currently being tuned. The PyWFS's are being built and integrated in their respective labs: the visible-light PyWFS at the University of Arizona (UA), and the infrared PyWFS at the University of Toronto (UT). The top-level AO control software is being developed at UA, with an on-sky calibration algorithm being developed at UT. ARIES development continues at UA, and MMT-Pol development is at the University of Minnesota. The science and education programs are in planning and preparation. We will present the design and development of the entire MAPS instrument and project, including an overview of lab results and next steps.
The EXoplanet Climate Infrared TElescope (EXCITE) experiment is a balloon-borne, purpose-designed mission to measure spectroscopic phase curves of short-period extrasolar giant planets (EGPs, or “hot Jupiters”). Here, we present EXCITE’s principal science instrument: a high-throughput, single-object spectrograph operating in the 0.8-2.5 µm and 2.5-4.0 µm bands with R≥50. Our compact design achieves diffraction-limited, on-axis performance with just three powered optics: two off-axis parabolic mirrors and a CaF2 prism. We discuss the optical and mechanical design, the expected optical performance of the spectrograph, and summarize the tolerances needed to achieve that performance. We also discuss plans for establishing alignment of the optics and verifying the optical performance.
The EXoplanet Climate Infrared TElescope (EXCITE) is a 0.5 meter near-infrared spectrograph that will fly from a high altitude balloon platform. EXCITE is designed to perform phase-resolved spectroscopy – continuous spectroscopic observations of a planet’s entire orbit about its host star – of transiting hot Jupiter-type exoplanets. With spectral coverage from 0.8 – 4 um, EXCITE will measure the peak of a target’s spectral energy distribution and the spectral signatures of many hydrogen and carbon-containing molecules. Phase curve observations are highly resource intensive, especially for shared-use facilities, and they require exceptional photometric stability that is difficult to achieve, even from space. In this work, we introduce the EXCITE experiment and explain how it will solve both these problems. We discuss its sensitivity and stability, then provide an update on its current status as we work toward a 2024 long duration science flight.
The EXoplanet Climate Infrared TElescope (EXCITE) is an instrument dedicated to measuring spectroscopic phase curves of extrasolar giant planets. EXCITE will carry a moderate resolution near-infrared spectrograph and will fly on a long duration balloon mission. We give an overview of the mechanical and thermal design and development status of the EXCITE cryogenic receiver. Active cooling for the EXCITE cryostat is provided by two linear pulse-tube cryocoolers. We discuss cryocooler thermal performance, integration of the spectrometer and detector, and the mounting scheme that attaches the cryostat to the backplate of the telescope. To reject heat power from the cryocoolers, gravity-assisted copper-methanol thermosyphons will maintain cryocooler temperatures within 20 ◦C of ambient temperature during operation. We discuss the results of preliminary thermal modeling of the thermosyphons as well as performance testing of a prototype built for in-lab verification.
Because of bright starlight leakage in coronagraphic raw images, faint astrophysical objects such as exoplanets can only be detected using powerful point spread function (PSF) subtraction algorithms. However, these algorithms have strong effects on faint objects of interest, and often prevent precise spectroscopic analysis and scattering property measurements of circumstellar disks. For this reason, PSF-subtraction effects is currently the main limitations to the precise characterization of exoplanetary dust with scattered-light imaging. Forward modeling techniques have long been developed for point source objects (Pueyo 2016). However, Forward Modeling with disks is complicated by the fact that the disk cannot be simplified using a simple point source convolved by the PSF as the astrophysical model; all hypothetical disk morphologies must be explored to understand the subtle and non-linear effects of the PSF subtraction algorithm on the shape and local geometry of these systems. Because of their complex geometries, the forward-modeling process has to be repeated tens or hundred of thousands of times on disks with slightly different physical properties. All of these geometries are then compared to the PSF-subtracted image of the data, within an MCMC or a Chi-square wrapper. In this paper, we present here DiskFM, a new open-source algorithm included in the PSF subtraction algo- rithms package pyKLIP. This code allows to produce fast forward-modeling for a variety of observation strategies (ADI, SDI, ADI+SDI, RDI). pyKLIP has already been used for SPHERE/IRDIS and GPI data. It is readily available on all instruments supported by pyKLIP (SPHERE/IFS, SCExAO/CHARIS), and can be quickly adapted for other coronagraphic instruments.
We are upgrading and refurbishing the first-generation adaptive-secondary mirror (ASM)-based AO system on the 6.5-m MMT in Arizona, in an NSF MSIP-funded program that will create a unique facility specialized for exoplanet characterization. This update includes a third-generation ASM with embedded electronics for low power consumption, two pyramid wavefront sensors (optical and near-IR), and an upgraded ARIES science camera for high-resolution spectroscopy (HRS) from 1-5 μm and MMT-POL science camera for sensitive polarization mapping. Digital electronics have been incorporated into each of the 336 actuators, simplifying hub-level electronics and reducing the total power to 300 W, down from 1800 W in the legacy system — reducing cooling requirements from active coolant to passive ambient cooling. An improved internal control law allows for electronic damping and a faster response. The dual pyramid wavefront sensors allow for a choice between optical or IR wavefront sensing depending on guide star magnitude, color, and extinction. The HRS upgrade to ARIES enables crosscorrelation of molecular templates to extract atmospheric parameters of exoplanets. The combination of these upgrades creates a workhorse instrument for exoplanet characterization via AO and HRS to separate planets from their host stars, with broad wavelength coverage and polarization to probe a range of molecular species in exoplanet atmospheres.
We present a revision to the astrometric calibration of the Gemini Planet Imager (GPI), an instrument designed to achieve the high contrast at small angular separations necessary to image substellar and planetary-mass companions around nearby, young stars. We identified several issues with the GPI data reduction pipeline (DRP) that significantly affected the determination of the angle of north in reduced GPI images. As well as introducing a small error in position angle measurements for targets observed at small zenith distances, this error led to a significant error in the previous astrometric calibration that has affected all subsequent astrometric measurements. We present a detailed description of these issues and how they were corrected. We reduced GPI observations of calibration binaries taken periodically since the instrument was commissioned in 2014 using an updated version of the DRP. These measurements were compared to observations obtained with the NIRC2 instrument on Keck II, an instrument with an excellent astrometric calibration, allowing us to derive an updated plate scale and north offset angle for GPI. This revised astrometric calibration should be used to calibrate all measurements obtained with GPI for the purposes of precision astrometry.
An explanation for the origin of asymmetry along the preferential axis of the point spread function (PSF) of an AO system is developed. When phase errors from high-altitude turbulence scintillate due to Fresnel propagation, wavefront amplitude errors may be spatially offset from residual phase errors. These correlated errors appear as asymmetry in the image plane under the Fraunhofer condition. In an analytic model with an open-loop AO system, the strength of the asymmetry is calculated for a single mode of phase aberration, which generalizes to two dimensions under a Fourier decomposition of the complex illumination. Other parameters included are the spatial offset of the AO correction, which is the wind velocity in the frozen flow regime multiplied by the effective AO time delay and propagation distance or altitude of the turbulent layer. In this model, the asymmetry is strongest when the wind is slow and nearest to the coronagraphic mask when the turbulent layer is far away, such as when the telescope is pointing low toward the horizon. A great emphasis is made about the fact that the brighter asymmetric lobe of the PSF points in the opposite direction as the wind, which is consistent analytically with the clarification that the image plane electric field distribution is actually the inverse Fourier transform of the aperture plane. Validation of this understanding is made with observations taken from the Gemini Planet Imager, as well as being reproducible in end-to-end AO simulations.
Although there are a large number of known exoplanets, there is little data on their global atmospheric properties. Phase-resolved spectroscopy of transiting planets – continuous spectroscopic observation of planets during their full orbits – probes varied depths and longitudes in the atmospheres thus measuring their three-dimensional thermal and chemical structure and contributing to our understanding of their global circulation. Planets with characteristics suitable for atmospheric characterization have orbits of several days, so phase curve observations are highly resource intensive, especially for shared use facilities. The Exoplanet Climate Infrared TElescope (EXCITE) is a balloon-borne near-infrared spectrometer designed to observe from 1 to 5 μm to perform phaseresolved spectroscopy of hot Jupiters. Flying from a long duration balloon (LDB) platform, EXCITE will have the stability to continuously stare at targets for days at a time and the sensitivity to produce data of the quality and quantity needed to significantly advance our understanding of exoplanet atmospheres. We describe the EXCITE design and show results of analytic and numerical calculations of the instrument sensitivity. We show that an instrument like EXCITE will produce a wealth of quality data, both complementing and serving as a critical bridge between current and future space-based near infrared spectroscopic instruments.
The Gemini Planet Imager Exoplanet Survey (GPIES) is a multiyear direct imaging survey of 600 stars to discover and characterize young Jovian exoplanets and their environments. We have developed an automated data architecture to process and index all data related to the survey uniformly. An automated and flexible data processing framework, which we term the Data Cruncher, combines multiple data reduction pipelines (DRPs) together to process all spectroscopic, polarimetric, and calibration data taken with GPIES. With no human intervention, fully reduced and calibrated data products are available less than an hour after the data are taken to expedite follow up on potential objects of interest. The Data Cruncher can run on a supercomputer to reprocess all GPIES data in a single day as improvements are made to our DRPs. A backend MySQL database indexes all files, which are synced to the cloud, and a front-end web server allows for easy browsing of all files associated with GPIES. To help observers, quicklook displays show reduced data as they are processed in real time, and chatbots on Slack post observing information as well as reduced data products. Together, the GPIES automated data processing architecture reduces our workload, provides real-time data reduction, optimizes our observing strategy, and maintains a homogeneously reduced dataset to study planet occurrence and instrument performance.
KEYWORDS: Gemini Planet Imager, Distortion, Iterated function systems, Monte Carlo methods, Planets, Stars, Coronagraphy, Calibration, Telescopes, Point spread functions
We present the results of both laboratory and on sky astrometric characterization of the Gemini Planet Imager (GPI). This characterization includes measurement of the pixel scale* of the integral field spectrograph (IFS), the position of the
detector with respect to north, and optical distortion. Two of these three quantities (pixel scale and distortion) were
measured in the laboratory using two transparent grids of spots, one with a square pattern and the other with a random pattern. The pixel scale in the laboratory was also estimate using small movements of the artificial star unit (ASU) in the
GPI adaptive optics system. On sky, the pixel scale and the north angle are determined using a number of known binary or multiple systems and Solar System objects, a subsample of which had concurrent measurements at Keck Observatory. Our current estimate of the GPI pixel scale is 14.14 ± 0.01 millarcseconds/pixel, and the north angle is -1.00 ± 0.03°. Distortion is shown to be small, with an average positional residual of 0.26 pixels over the field of view, and is corrected using a 5th order polynomial. We also present results from Monte Carlo simulations of the GPI Exoplanet Survey (GPIES) assuming GPI achieves ~1 milliarcsecond relative astrometric precision. We find that with this precision, we
will be able to constrain the eccentricities of all detected planets, and possibly determine the underlying eccentricity
distribution of widely separated Jovians.
The Gemini Planet Imager (GPI) is a new facility instrument for the Gemini Observatory designed to provide direct detection and characterization of planets and debris disks around stars in the solar neighborhood. In addition to its extreme adaptive optics and coronagraphic systems which give access to high angular resolution and high-contrast imaging capabilities, GPI contains an integral field spectrograph providing low resolution spectroscopy across five bands between 0.95 and 2.5 μm. This paper describes the sequence of processing steps required for the spectro-photometric calibration of GPI science data, and the necessary calibration files. Based on calibration observations of the white dwarf HD 8049 B we estimate that the systematic error in spectra extracted from GPI observations is less than 5%. The flux ratio of the occulted star and fiducial satellite spots within coronagraphic GPI observations, required to estimate the magnitude difference between a target and any resolved companions, was measured in the H-band to be ∆m = 9.23 ± 0.06 in laboratory measurements and
∆m = 9.39 ± 0.11 using on-sky observations. Laboratory measurements for the Y, J , K1 and K2 filters are also presented. The total throughput of GPI, Gemini South and the atmosphere of the Earth was also measured in each photometric passband, with a typical throughput in H-band of 18% in the non-coronagraphic mode, with some variation observed over the six-month period for which observations were available. We also report ongoing development and improvement of the data cube extraction algorithm.
The Gemini Planet Imager (GPI) combines extreme adaptive optics, an integral field spectrograph, and a high performance coronagraph to directly image extrasolar planets in the near-infrared. Because the coronagraph blocks most of the light from the star, it prevents the properties of the host star from being measured directly. Instead, satellite spots, which are created by diffraction from a square grid in the pupil plane, can be used to locate the star and extract its spectrum. We describe the techniques implemented into the GPI Data Reduction Pipeline to measure the properties of the satellite spots and discuss the precision of the reconstructed astrometry and spectrophotometry of the occulted star. We find the astrometric precision of the satellite spots in an H-band datacube to be 0.05 pixels and is best when individual satellite spots have a signal to noise ratio (SNR) of > 20. In regards to satellite spot spectrophotometry, we find that the total flux from the satellite spots is stable to
~7% and scales linearly with central star brightness and that the shape of the satellite spot spectrum varies on
the 2% level.
In Spring 2013, the LEECH (LBTI Exozodi Exoplanet Common Hunt) survey began its ~130-night campaign from the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) atop Mt Graham, Arizona. This survey benefits from the many technological achievements of the LBT, including two 8.4-meter mirrors on a single fixed mount, dual adaptive secondary mirrors for high Strehl performance, and a cold beam combiner to dramatically reduce the telescope’s overall background emissivity. LEECH neatly complements other high-contrast planet imaging efforts by observing stars at L’ (3.8 μm), as opposed to the shorter wavelength near-infrared bands (1-2.4 μm) of other surveys. This portion of the spectrum offers deep mass sensitivity, especially around nearby adolescent (~0.1-1 Gyr) stars. LEECH’s contrast is competitive with other extreme adaptive optics systems, while providing an alternative survey strategy. Additionally, LEECH is characterizing known exoplanetary systems with observations from 3-5μm in preparation for JWST.
The Gemini Planet Imager (GPI) has as its science instrument an infrared integral field spectrograph/polarimeter (IFS). Integral field spectrographs are scientificially powerful but require sophisticated data reduction systems. For GPI to achieve its scientific goals of exoplanet and disk characterization, IFS data must be reconstructed into high quality astrometrically and photometrically accurate datacubes in both spectral and polarization modes, via flexible software that is usable by the broad Gemini community. The data reduction pipeline developed by the GPI instrument team to meet these needs is now publicly available following GPI’s commissioning.
This paper, the first of a series, provides a broad overview of GPI data reduction, summarizes key steps, and presents the overall software framework and implementation. Subsequent papers describe in more detail the algorithms necessary for calibrating GPI data. The GPI data reduction pipeline is open source, available from planetimager.org, and will continue to be enhanced throughout the life of the instrument. It implements an extensive suite of task primitives that can be assembled into reduction recipes to produce calibrated datasets ready for scientific analysis. Angular, spectral, and polarimetric differential imaging are supported. Graphical tools automate the production and editing of recipes, an integrated calibration database manages reference files, and an interactive data viewer customized for high contrast imaging allows for exploration and manipulation of data.
To image faint substellar companions obscured by the stellar halo and speckles, scattered light from the bright primary star must be removed in hardware or software. We apply the "locally-optimized combination of images" (LOCI) algorithm to 1-minute Keck Observatory snapshots of GKM dwarfs in the Hyades using source diversity to determine the most likely PSF. We obtain a mean contrast of 10-2 at 0".01, 10-4 at <1", and 10-5 at 5". New brown dwarf and low-mass stellar companions to Hyades primaries are found in a third of the 84 targeted systems. This campaign shows the efficacy of LOCI on snapshot imaging as well as on bright wide binaries with off-axis LOCI, reaching contrasts sufficient for imaging 625-Myr late-L/early-T dwarfs purely in post-processing.
Ground based adaptive optics is a potentially powerful technique for direct imaging detection of extrasolar planets. Turbulence in the Earth's atmosphere imposes some fundamental limits, but the large size of ground-based telescopes compared to spacecraft can work to mitigate this. We are carrying out a design study for a dedicated ultra-high-contrast system, the eXtreme Adaptive Optics Planet Imager (XAOPI), which could be deployed on an 8-10m telescope in 2007. With a 4096-actuator MEMS deformable mirror it should achieve Strehl >0.9 in the near-IR. Using an innovative spatially filtered wavefront sensor, the system will be optimized to control scattered light over a large radius and suppress artifacts caused by static errors. We predict that it will achieve contrast levels of 107-108 at angular separations of 0.2-0.8" around a large sample of stars (R<7-10), sufficient to detect Jupiter-like planets through their near-IR emission over a wide range of ages and masses. We are constructing a high-contrast AO testbed to verify key concepts of our system, and present preliminary results here, showing an RMS wavefront error of <1.3 nm with a flat mirror.
The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) has produced dramatic images of proto-planetary disks (“proplyds”) surrounding your (<106 year old) stars embedded in the Orion Nebula. The intense UV radiation field of the high-mass Trapezium stars heats the disk surfaces, drives mass-loss, and produces bright ionization fronts. Many disks are seen in silhouette against the nebular background of the Orion Nebula, or against the proplyd’s own ionization front. The sub-arcsecond resolution and light gathering power of the Keck telescopes in the near-IR provide a unique opportunity to study the earliest phases of planetary disk evolution and disk destruction under intense UV radiation fields. We present initial results from observations of a handful of proplyds using KCAM and NIRSPEC, with and without the adaptive optics (AO) system, on Keck II. These data clearly resolve, both spatially and spectrally, ionization fronts, disks, and a microjet. The data are used to constrain mass-loss rates due to photoevaporation, disk surface wind velocity, and grain size distribution.
Measurements of anisoplanatism from data obtained with natural guide star adaptive optics on the Lick Observatory 3m are presented. These were obtained from short exposures of binary stars with the IRCAL camera whose field of view (~20”) is generally considered isoplanatic in the K-band. However, measurable amounts of high-order anisoplanatism were present at separations of ~7” and ~12” with an isoplanatic patch size estimated to be ~26”. Within this field, there was measureable differential image motion between the binary star components. This image motion was small compared to the size of the diffraction-spot and therefore had negligible effect.
The Lick Observatory laser guide star adaptive optics system has undergone continual improvement and testing as it is being integrated as a facility science instrument on the Shane 3 meter telescope. Both Natural Guide Star (NGS) and Laser Guide Star (LGS) modes are now used in science observing programs. We report on system performance results as derived from data taken on both science and engineering nights and also describe the newly developed on-line techniques for seeing and system performance characterization. We also describe the future enhancements to the Lick system that will enable additional science goals such as long-exposure spectroscopy.
Direct detection of photons emitted or reflected by an extrasolar planet is an extremely difficult but extremely exciting application of adaptive optics. Typical contrast levels for an extrasolar planet would be 109 - Jupiter is a billion times fainter than the sun. Current adaptive optics systems can only achieve contrast levels of 106, but so-called extreme adaptive optics systems with 104 -105 degrees of freedom could potentially detect extrasolar planets. We explore the scaling laws defining the performance of these systems, first set out by Angel (1994), and derive a different definition of an optimal system. Our sensitivity predictions are somewhat more pessimistic than the original paper, due largely to slow decorrelation timescales for some noise sources, though choosing to site an ExAO system at a location with exceptional r0 (e.g. Mauna Kea) can offset this. We also explore the effects of segment aberrations in a Keck-like telescope on ExAO; although the effects are significant, they can be mitigated through Lyot coronagraphy.
Adaptive optics performance using a sodium laser guide star at the Lick Observatory 3.0 m telescope is presented. In order to accomplish this the residual effects of natural guide star tip-tilt motion is removed. This is measured from 500 short exposure images (texp = 57ms). The data show instantaneous Strehl ratios ranging from ~ 0.10 to ~ 0.45 with a mean value of ~ 0.26. Centroid tracking of these data yield residual tip-tilt errors of ~ 21 mas, within specifications for the system. This resdual tip-tilt motion reduces the Strehl ratio of long exposure imaging by only ~ 7%.
The Lick Observatory laser guide star adaptive optics system has been significantly upgraded over the past two years in order to establish it as a facility science instrument on the Shane 3 meter telescope. Natural Guide Star (NGS) mode has been in use in regular science observing programs for over a year. The Laser Guide Star (LGS) mode has been tested in engineering runs and is now starting to do science observing. In good seeing conditions, the system produces K-band Strehl ratios >0.7 (NGS) and >0.6 (LGS). In LGS mode tip/tilt guiding is achieved with a V~16 natural star anywhere inside a 1 arcminute radius field, which provides about 50% sky coverage. This enables diffraction-limited imaging of regions where few bright guidestars suitable for NGS mode are available. NGS mode requires at least a V~13 guidestar and has a sky coverage of <1%. LGS science programs will include high resolution studies of galaxies, active galactic nuclei, QSO host galaxies and dim pre-main sequence stars.
The U.S. Air Force Advanced Electro-Optical System (AEOS) which includes a 941 actuator adaptive optics system on a 3.7 m telescope has recently been made available for astronomical programs. Operating at a wavelength of 750 nm, the diffraction-limited angular resolution of the system is 0".04; currently, the magnitude limit is V approximately 7 mag. At the distances of nearby open clusters, diffraction- limited images should resolve companions with separations as small as 4 - 6 AU - comparable to the Sun-Jupiter distance. The ability to study such close separations is critical, since most companions are expected to have separations in the few AU to tens of AU range. With the exceptional angular resolution of the current AEOS setup, but restricted target magnitude range, we are conducting a companion search of a large, well-defined sample of bright early-type stars in nearby open clusters and in the field. Our data set will both characterize this relatively new adaptive optics system and answer questions in binary star formation and stellar X- ray activity. We will discuss our experience using AEOS, the data analysis involved, and our initial results.
Access to the requested content is limited to institutions that have purchased or subscribe to SPIE eBooks.
You are receiving this notice because your organization may not have SPIE eBooks access.*
*Shibboleth/Open Athens users─please
sign in
to access your institution's subscriptions.
To obtain this item, you may purchase the complete book in print or electronic format on
SPIE.org.
INSTITUTIONAL Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.
PERSONAL Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.