WAET: low-cost ground based telescopes for accelerated exoplanet direct imaging

Abstract

The Wide Aperture Exoplanet Telescope (WAET) is a new ground-based optical telescope layout with an extremely asymmetric aperture, which results in new exoplanet imaging reach at very low cost. We suggest that hWAET, a 100x2 telescope, can be built for $150M in the 2020s, and >300m versions merit further R&D.