A Nulling Wide Field Imager for Exoplanets Detection and General Astrophysics

Abstract

We present a solution to obtain a high-resolution image of a wide field with the central source removed by destructive interference. The wide-field image is created by aperture synthesis with a rotating sparse array of telescopes in space. Nulling of the central source is achieved using a phase-mask coronagraph. The full (u,v) plane coverage delivered by the 60m, six 3-meter telescope array is particularly well-suited for the detection and characterization of exoplanets in the infrared (DARWIN and Terrestrial Planet Finder (TPF) missions) as well as for other generic science observations. Detection (S/N=10) of an Earth-like planet is achieved in less than 10 hours with a 1 micron bandwidth at 10 micron.