OP: Collaborative Research: Active Speckle Control and Fast Speckle Statistics to Drastically Improve the Contrast Ratio of Exoplanet Direct Imaging

天文学家想要为其他恒星周围的宜居行星成像。地球大气中的湍流是实现这一目标的主要障碍。这种湍流模糊和混淆了来自明亮恒星的光线和它们附近昏暗的行星。自适应光学可以对湍流进行部分校正。然而，即使是达到极限的自适应光学(Exao)仍然不足以提供所需的高对比度图像。Mazin和合作者将开发一种创新的控制算法，利用新的、高响应的探测器。这种方法将使Exao图像能够将系外行星与它们的母星分开。由此产生的算法将在几个天文台进行测试和使用。这项技术可能会使地面天文学取得突破性进展，并发现太阳系外的宜居世界。这项提议是之前获得美国国家科学基金会奖(1308556和1654105)支持的微波动力学电感探测器研究和开发的继续。这些以前的奖项支持了帕洛玛天文台的仪器开发和部署。该奖项将开发算法和方法，以使用该仪器来提高系外行星的极端自适应光学(Exao)图像的对比度。提高对比度是Exao成像系外行星的主要技术挑战。最大的障碍是短时间尺度的大气散斑，这些散斑没有被AO系统校正。这项提议将利用MKID探测器的快速时间响应，通过光子到达时间统计，事后消除图像中的斑点。直接探测和研究类地系外行星将在未来十年实现天文学的一个主要目标。

Astronomers would like to image habitable planets around other stars. Turbulence in Earth's atmosphere is the main obstacle to achieving this goal. Such turbulence blurs and confuses light from bright stars with their nearby, dim planets. Adaptive optics can partially correct for turbulence. However, even adaptive optics pushed to its limits (Extreme Adaptive Optics, ExAO) is still insufficient to deliver the required high-contrast images. Mazin and collaborators will develop an innovative control algorithm that makes use of new, highly responsive detectors. This approach will enable ExAO images to separate exoplanets from their parent stars. The resulting algorithm will be tested and used at several observatories. This technology may enable breakthrough advances in ground-based astronomy and allow the discovery of habitable worlds outside our solar system.This proposal is a continuation of Microwave Kinetic Inductance Detector (MKID) research and development that was supported by previous NSF awards (1308556 and1654105). These previous awards supported the instrument development and deployment at Palomar Observatory. This award will develop algorithms and methodology to use the instrument to increase contrast in Extreme Adaptive Optics (ExAO) images of exoplanets. Increasing contrast is the main technical challenge for imaging exoplanets with ExAO. The greatest obstacle is short timescale atmospheric speckles that are uncorrected by the AO system. This proposal will use the fast time response of the MKID detectors to remove speckles from images ex post facto using the photon arrival time statistics. Direct detection and study of Earth-like exoplanets would realize a major goal of astronomy in the coming decade.