Development of Advanced Coronagraph Optics for Large Aperture Telescopes

Gareth Ruane被授予NSF天文学和天体物理学博士后奖学金，在加州理工学院开展一项研究和教育计划。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。这项工作的目的是在类地行星的大气层中寻找生物活动的特征，这是研究系外行星的一项主要努力。这一奖项还可能导致天文仪器能力的重大进步。除了仪器开发，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较低群体的不同群体的学生对科学和工程感兴趣。探测类似地球的系外行星光谱中的生物特征需要仪器在较大的光谱带宽上区分来自比系外行星亮许多量级的主恒星的光，再加上来自离轴行星的高吞吐量。随着更大的望远镜的建造，望远镜孔径中的新结构引入了更明亮的星光的衍射，使现有的星光抑制机制变得复杂。Ruane设计了新类型的光学组件，这些组件针对大的、受阻的、可能分段的望远镜孔径进行了优化，类似于计划用于地面和空间望远镜的那些。这些设计将在加州理工大学和喷气推进实验室以及帕洛玛天文台和凯克天文台的空中实验室进行改进和测试。Ruane还将开展一项外展计划，旨在鼓励帕萨迪纳联合学区的学生对科学和工程感兴趣。

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.