A new integral field spectrograph for exoplanetary science at Palomar

Abstract

In July 2008, a new integral field spectrograph and a diffraction limited, apodized-pupil Lyot coronagraph was installed behind the adaptive optics system at the Hale 200-inch telescope at Palomar. This instrument serves as the basis of a long-term observational program in high-contrast imaging. The technical goal is to utilize the spectral nature of speckle noise to overcome it. The coronagraph alone will achieve an initial dynamic range of 10-5 at 1", with first light in mid-2008, without speckle noise suppression. Initial work indicates that spectral speckle suppression will provide a factor of 10 to 100 improvement over this. Such sensitivity provides detection and low resolution spectra of young planets of several Jupiter masses around young stars within 25 pc. The spectrograph obtains 32 images across the J and H bands (1.05 - 1.75 &mgr;m), with a spectral resolution of 30-100. The image plane is subdivided by a 200 x 200 element micro-lenslet array with a plate scale of 21 mas per lenslet, diffraction-limited at 1.0 &mgr;m. Data is collected with a 2048 x 2048 pixel Rockwell Hawaii-II HgCdTe infrared detector cooled with liquid Nitrogen. This system is the first of a new generation of apodized pupil coronagraphs combined with high-order adaptive optics and integral field spectrographs.