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Design of the extreme AO system for SPHERE, the planet finder instrument of the VLT

2006; SPIE; Volume: 6272; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1117/12.670794

1996-756X

Thierry Fusco, C. Petit, G. Rousset, Jean-François Sauvage, K. Dohlen, D. Mouillet, J. Charton, Pierre Baudoz, M. Kasper, E. Fedrigo, P. Rabou, P. Feautrier, Mark Downing, P. Gigan, J.‐M. Conan, J.-L. Beuzit, N. Hubin, F. Wildi, Pascal Puget,

Optical Systems and Laser Technology

The SPHERE system aims at the detection of extremely faint sources (giant extra-solar planet) in the vinicity of bright stars. Such a challenging goal automatically requires the use of a coronagraphic device to cancel out the flux coming from the star and smart imaging technics which have to be added to reach the required contrast for exo-planet detection (typically 10 -6 - 10 -7 in contrast). In this frame of the SPHERE project a global system study has demonstrated the feasibility of an AO system for the direct exoplanets detection. A detailed description of this system is proposed in this paper. The main trade-offs are discussed and justified and all the subsystems briefly presented. The realization phase has begun in 2006 and we foresee to obtain a first light at the VLT in 2010.