Methods of detecting extrasolar planets: I. Imaging |
| |
| Authors: | CE KenKnight |
| |
| Institution: | Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, University of Arizona, Tuczon, Arizona 85721, Italy |
| |
| Abstract: | It is proposed that the presence or absence of Jupiter-like planets, and perhaps even Venus-like planets, around nearby stars be studied with a 2-m telescope in Earth orbit. According to the Abbe theory of imaging, the coherence of the light from an unresolvable star can be used to discriminate between planet light and scattered light from the star. Most scattered light is shown to arise from the imperfect figure of the telescope surface, but an analog of a phase contrast trast microscope can be used to control the figure automatically. A number of arrangements are possible for using the interference properties of light to cancel the residual scattered starlight by two to three orders of magnitude without affecting the planet light. |
| |
| Keywords: | |
| 本文献已被 ScienceDirect 等数据库收录！ |
|
