The SPHERE exoplanet imager: status report at PDR

Francois Wildi, Jean-Luc Beuzit, Markus Feldt, David Mouillet, Kjetil Dohlen, Pascal Puget, Andrea Baruffolo, Julien Charton, Jacopo Antichi, Pierre Baudoz, Anthony Boccaletti, Marcel Carbillet (+27 others)
2007 Astronomical Adaptive Optics Systems and Applications III  
The SPHERE is an exo-solar planet imager, which goal is to detect giant exo-solar planets in the vicinity of bright stars and to characterize them through spectroscopic and polarimetric observations. It is a complete system with a core made of an extreme-Adaptive Optics (AO) turbulence correction, pupil tracker and interferential coronagraphs. At its back end, an Infra-Red Dual-beam Imaging and Spectroscopy science module and an integral field spectrograph work in the Near Infrared (NIR) Y, J,
more » ... and Ks bands (0.95 -2.32µm) and a high resolution polarization camera covers the visible (0.6 -0.9 µm) region. We describe briefly the science goals of the instrument and deduce the top-level requirements. This paper presents the system architecture, and reviews each of the main sub-systems. The results of the latest end-to-end simulations are shown and an update of the expected performance is given. The project has been officially kicked-off in March 2006, it is presently undergoing Preliminary Design Review and is scheduled for 1 st light in early 2011. This paper reviews the present design of SPHERE but focuses on the changes implemented since this project was presented the last time to this audience 6 .
doi:10.1117/12.734785 fatcat:wzl3lcitmbc3lge4cwvomspxw4