Development of Advanced Coronagraph Optics for Large Aperture Telescopes

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Gareth Ruane is awarded an NSF Astronomy and Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellowship to carry out a program of research and education at the California Institute of Technology. Ruane will build and test instruments designed to study the detection of Earth-like planets around other stars ("exoplanets"). The search for signatures of biological activity in the atmospheres of Earth-like planets, the aim of this work, is a major effort in the study of exoplanets. This award could also lead to significant advances in the capabilities of astronomical instrumentation. In addition to instrument development, Ruane will lead a program within the Pasadena Unified School District designed to encourage interest in science and engineering in a diverse population of students from historically underrepresented groups.The detection of biosignatures in the spectrum of an Earth-like exoplanet requires instruments that can discriminate light from a host star many magnitudes brighter than the exoplanet, over a large spectral bandwidth, coupled with high throughput from the off-axis planet. With the construction of larger telescopes, the newer structures in the telescope apertures introduce diffraction of the brighter starlight, complicating the existing mechanisms used for starlight suppression. Ruane has designed new types of optical components that are optimized for large, obstructed, potentially segmented telescope apertures similar to those planned for ground-based and space-based telescopes. These designs will be refined and tested both in laboratories at Caltech and JPL, and on sky at the Palomar and Keck Observatories. Ruane will also conduct an outreach program aimed at encouraging interest in science and engineering among students at the Pasadena Unified School District.