Development of Advanced Coronagraph Optics for Large Aperture Telescopes

Gareth Ruane被授予美国国家科学基金会天文学和天体物理学博士后奖学金，在加州理工学院开展研究和教育项目。Ruane将建造和测试旨在研究探测其他恒星周围的类地行星（“系外行星”）的仪器。在类地行星的大气中寻找生物活动的特征是这项工作的目的，是研究系外行星的一项主要努力。该奖项还可能导致天文仪器能力的重大进步。除了仪器开发之外，Ruane还将在帕萨迪纳联合学区领导一个项目，旨在鼓励来自历史上代表性不足的不同群体的学生对科学和工程的兴趣。在类地系外行星的光谱中检测生物特征，需要能够在较大的光谱带宽上区分来自比系外行星亮许多等的主恒星的光的仪器，再加上来自离轴行星的高通量。随着大型望远镜的建造，望远镜口径中的新结构引入了较亮星光的衍射，使现有的星光抑制机制复杂化。Ruane设计了新型光学元件，该元件针对大型、受阻、可能分段的望远镜孔径进行了优化，类似于地基和天基望远镜的计划。这些设计将在加州理工学院和喷气推进实验室以及帕洛玛和凯克天文台的天空中进行改进和测试。鲁恩还将开展一项外展计划，旨在鼓励帕萨迪纳联合学区学生对科学和工程的兴趣。

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.