Unveiling the Architecture of Nearby Planetary Systems by Direct Imaging, from Gas Giants to Habitable New Worlds

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The search for rocky habitable exoplanets is one of the last frontiers of astronomy. The task is quite difficult, as those small Earth-size planets are 1,000x less massive and up to 10 billion times fainter at visible light than their central star. Direct imaging is the only technique that will allow the discovery and characterization of Earth-like planets around nearby Sun-like stars. My main career-long objective is to develop the technology for direct exoplanet imaging to finally allow the discovery and the detailed characterization of these worlds. The ultimate discovery would be the identification of life signatures on a distant exoplanet. For the next 5 years, I am proposing to expand the work that I started by performing frontier science observations and key instrument development projects. My main short-term science objective will be to continue my involvement in large observing campaigns, using the Gemini Planet Imager instrument (GPI) at the Gemini telescope, the SCExAO instrument at Subaru, and the upcoming James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), to find, to characterize, and to derive the distribution of young gas- and ice-giants, the ones we can discover with current and near future imaging instruments. With only a handful currently known by direct imaging, more are needed to derive meaningful statistics. The discovery and characterization of new systems is fundamental for understanding their orbital parameters/distribution, their composition, their clouds, their multi-planet interactions, and for learning about their formation process. For instrumentation projects, my focus will be on developing transformative technologies that will enable, in the next decade, the imaging discovery of Earth-size rocky exoplanets in the solar neighborhood. These instrument efforts will be part of my new high-contrast imaging NRC laboratory, NEW EARTH. This laboratory, the first in Canada with only a few comparable worldwide, will be the center piece of my team instrument-focus research activities for the next decade. The first two projects will be to (1) take the lead of a Gemini Planet Imager upgrade (currently being assembled on the bench by my current PhD student), and to (2) finish designing and testing a 10 microns imager prototype to search for the thermal signature of habitable exoplanets in the Alpha Centauri system. Future work will focus on visible-band high-contrast imaging solutions and advanced spectral characterization systems. The proposed research program will expand and amplify the work I started with University of Victoria students 5 years ago with my previous NSERC grant. With access to our NEW EARTH lab to design, test and deploy frontier technologies, to exciting science campaigns from both ground- and spaced-based instruments, and to breakthrough discoveries, I expect our team to significantly contribute to the search of Earth 2.0 and life outside our Solar system.