10-16-2018, 05:09 PM
Future technique for imaging exoplanets tested at Subaru
Although thousands of exoplanets have been discovered by indirect methods (e.g., by transitions and the effects they have on the movement of their host stars), few exoplanets have been observed directly. This is mainly because they are outshone by their host stars and the resolution required to distinguish them from those stars is extremely difficult to achieve. However, a new method of enhanced adaptive optics algorithms has been developed and successfully tested at the Subaru Observatory on MK. This technique will allow future extremely large telescopes, such as the TMT, to directly image exoplanets and help determine the composition of their atmospheres, and perhaps even detect life.
https://www.astrobio.net/also-in-news/aw...ext-level/
"An international team of scientists, including KAUST high performance computing experts and astronomers from the Paris Observatory and the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ), in collaboration with NVIDIA, is taking the search for habitable planets and observation of first epoch galaxies to the next level.
An on-sky demonstration was recently achieved on NAOJ’s 8.2 meter Subaru Telescope, and the Paris Observatory’s team is already scaling up the algorithms for future larger telescopes. The KAUST Extreme Computing Research Center (ECRC) is working with the astronomers to develop the advanced Extreme-AO algorithms that will meet the formidable habitable exoplanet imaging challenge."
Although thousands of exoplanets have been discovered by indirect methods (e.g., by transitions and the effects they have on the movement of their host stars), few exoplanets have been observed directly. This is mainly because they are outshone by their host stars and the resolution required to distinguish them from those stars is extremely difficult to achieve. However, a new method of enhanced adaptive optics algorithms has been developed and successfully tested at the Subaru Observatory on MK. This technique will allow future extremely large telescopes, such as the TMT, to directly image exoplanets and help determine the composition of their atmospheres, and perhaps even detect life.
https://www.astrobio.net/also-in-news/aw...ext-level/
"An international team of scientists, including KAUST high performance computing experts and astronomers from the Paris Observatory and the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ), in collaboration with NVIDIA, is taking the search for habitable planets and observation of first epoch galaxies to the next level.
An on-sky demonstration was recently achieved on NAOJ’s 8.2 meter Subaru Telescope, and the Paris Observatory’s team is already scaling up the algorithms for future larger telescopes. The KAUST Extreme Computing Research Center (ECRC) is working with the astronomers to develop the advanced Extreme-AO algorithms that will meet the formidable habitable exoplanet imaging challenge."