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| Reference : Nulling Interferometry with IRSI-Darwin: Detection and Characterization of Earth-like Ex... |
| Dissertations and theses : Master's dissertation | |||
| Physical, chemical, mathematical & earth Sciences : Space science, astronomy & astrophysics | |||
| http://hdl.handle.net/2268/25281 | |||
| Nulling Interferometry with IRSI-Darwin: Detection and Characterization of Earth-like Exoplanets | |
| English | |
Absil, Olivier  [Université de Liège - ULg > Département d'astrophys., géophysique et océanographie (AGO) > Astroph. extragalactique et observations spatiales (AEOS) >] | |
| 30-Jun-2001 | |
| Université de Liège | |
| Ingénieur civil physicien | |
| 157 | |
| Surdej, Jean | |
| Swings, Jean-Pierre | |
| Jamar, Claude | |
| Beckers, Pierre | |
| Karlsson, Anders | |
| [en] Exoplanet detection ; Nulling interferometry ; Thermal infrared ; Internal modulation ; IRSI-Darwin ; Aperture configurations | |
| [en] The search for exoplanets has gained much interest since the first discovery of a planet orbiting the star 51 Peg by Mayor and Queloz in 1995. Current techniques for exoplanet detection, such as radial velocity measurements, are well suited to detect Jupiter-sized planets, but do not have enough sensitivity to discover planets similar to our Earth. The IRSI-Darwin space mission is aimed at filling this gap, by means of nulling interferometry. This special kind of interferometry is intended to suppress all the light coming from a blinding star by means of destructive interference, in order to reveal the star's potential planetary companions. Once the starlight has been properly cancelled, the thermal emission from zodiacal and exo-zodiacal dust clouds becomes the main obstacle to planet detection. Internal modulation is a recent technique devised to suppress such spurious signals. It relies on rapid modulation between the outputs of two nulling interferometers sharing the same telescopes.
In the present thesis, a comprehensive investigation of possible configurations of a telescope array with internal modulation has been undertaken, leading to a number of new configurations. As compared to the current {\sc Darwin} configuration, the sensitivity of the interferometer to the planetary signal has been improved by a factor of two, resulting in a fourfold speedup in the detection and characterization of exoplanets. The possibility of designing a nulling interferometer on ESO's Very Large Telescope Interferometer as a technological prerequisite to {\sc Darwin} has also been considered. Signal-to-noise calculations have shown that this instrument could be used to characterize exo-zodiacal clouds down to the 10-zodi level. | |
| Institut d'Astrophysique et de Géophysique, Université de Liège | |
| Researchers ; Professionals ; Students | |
| http://hdl.handle.net/2268/25281 |
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