Sprecher
Beschreibung
Adaptive Optics (AO) have revolutionized astronomy and enabled optical imaging down to ~15 mas resolution on today's largest telescopes. The resulting image stability and contrast have, in turn, allowed us to probed the close-in environment of neighboring stars, peeking at dust and debris disks, and blossoming exoplanets. In this talk, I will present recent results and technical capabilities (in wavefront sensing and real-time wavefront control) that make and are enabled by AO at the 8.2 meter Subaru Telescope, located atop the Maunakea volcano on the island of Hawai'i -- the best astronomical site in the world.
The Subaru Coronagraphic Extreme Adaptive Optics platform (SCExAO) leverages the power of two cascaded high-order AO systems, for a total of more than 5000 DM actuators, driven by two high-order Pyramid wavefront sensors at up to 3.5 kHz.
SCExAO is able to provide up to 94% Strehl ratio astronomical images to supported astronomers, perfoming spectroscopy, imaging, and polarimetry across its collection of scientific modules operating in the visible and near infrared (600-2400 nm). With a 3x3 arcsecond field of view, SCExAO focuses on close circumstellar features, an exciting environment as we find ourselves discovering so many stellar systems that may be just like ours; with planet-to-star contrasts currently in the 10^6, we are able to image young, hot exo-Jupiters. As the next decades bring about 40-m class telescopes, we will be within range of detecting a nearby exo-earth.
To get there, SCExAO is always on the lookout to improve wavefront control and stability, real-time control for AO, and novel ways to do astronomy. We hope to foster corss-disciplinary collaborations about and around AO, teach, and learn.
