Astrophysics Focused Telescope Assets Research Articles

Coronagraph instrument for WFIRST-AFTA

The Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) is a NASA observatory concept, now in phase A study, which is designed to perform wide-field imaging and slitless spectroscopic surveys for dark energy research and other astrophysical studies. It will also perform microlensing surveys to look for distant exoplanets in our galaxy, and direct imaging studies of some of the very nearest exoplanets. The current astrophysics focused telescope assets (AFTA) design of the mission makes use of an existing 2.4-m telescope, which yields enhanced sensitivity and imaging performance in all these science programs. AFTA also enables the addition of a coronagraph instrument (CGI) for direct imaging and spectroscopy of nearby giant exoplanets (including some that were discovered by radial velocity and other methods), and also for observing debris disks around the candidate host stars. This paper outlines the context for the other papers in this special volume on the WFIRST-AFTA CGI, covering the science, design, engineering, and technology development of the observatory and its CGI.

Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope–Astrophysics Focused Telescope Assets coronagraphic operations: lessons learned from the Hubble Space Telescope and the James Webb Space Telescope

The coronagraphic instrument (CGI) currently proposed for the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope–Astrophysics Focused Telescope Assets (WFIRST-AFTA) mission will be the first example of a space-based coronagraph optimized for extremely high contrasts that are required for the direct imaging of exoplanets reflecting the light of their host star. While the design of this instrument is still in progress, this early stage of development is a particularly beneficial time to consider the operation of such an instrument. We review current or planned operations on the Hubble Space Telescope and the James Webb Space Telescope with a focus on which operational aspects will have relevance to the planned WFIRST-AFTA CGI. We identify five key aspects of operations that will require attention: (1) detector health and evolution, (2) wavefront control, (3) observing strategies/postprocessing, (4) astrometric precision/target acquisition, and (5) polarimetry. We make suggestions on a path forward for each of these items.

Numerical modeling of the proposed WFIRST-AFTA coronagraphs and their predicted performances

The WFIRST-AFTA 2.37 m telescope will provide the opportunity to host a coronagraph for the imaging and spectroscopy of planets and disks in the next decade. The telescope, however, is not ideal, given its obscured aperture. Only recently have coronagraph designs been thoroughly investigated that can efficiently work with this configuration. Three coronagraph designs, the hybrid Lyot, shaped pupil, and phase-induced amplitude apodization complex mask coronagraph have been selected for further development by the Astrophysics Focused Telescope Asset project. Real-world testbed demonstrations of these have just begun, so for now, the most reliable means of evaluating their potential performance comes from numerical modeling incorporating diffraction propagation, realistic system models, and simulated wavefront sensing and control. Here, we present the methods of performance evaluation and results for the current coronagraph designs.

THE DIRECT DETECTABILITY OF GIANT EXOPLANETS IN THE OPTICAL

Motivated by the possibility that a coronagraph will be put on the Wide-field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST)/Astrophysics Focused Telescope Assets (AFTA), we explore the direct detectability of extrasolar giant planets (EGPs) in the optical. We quantify a planet's detectability by the fraction of its orbit for which it is in an observable configuration (). Using a suite of Monte Carlo experiments, we study the dependence of upon the inner working angle (IWA) and minimum achievable contrast () of the direct-imaging observatory; the planet's phase function, geometric albedo, single-scattering albedo, radius, and distance from Earth; and the semimajor axis distribution of EGPs. We calculate phase functions for a given geometric or single-scattering albedo, assuming various scattering mechanisms. We find that the Lambertian phase function can predict significantly larger s with respect to the more realistic Rayleigh phase function. For observations made with WFIRST/AFTA's baseline capabilities (, ), Jupiter-like planets orbiting stars within 10, 30, and 50 pc of Earth have volume-averaged observability fractions of ∼12%, 3%, and 0.5%, respectively. At 10 pc, such observations yield for low- to modest-eccentricity planets with semimajor axes in the range ∼2–10 AU. If , this range extends to ∼35 AU. We find that, in all but the most optimistic configurations, the probability for detection in a blind search is low (< 5%). However, with orbital parameter constraints from long-term radial-velocity campaigns and Gaia astrometry, the tools we develop in this work can be used to determine both the most promising systems to target and when to observe them.

Weak Gravitational Lensing Systematics from Image Combination

Extremely accurate shape measurements of galaxy images are needed to probe dark energy properties with weak gravitational lensing surveys. To increase survey area with a fixed observing time and pixel count, images from surveys such as the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) or Euclid will necessarily be undersampled and therefore distorted by aliasing. Oversampled, unaliased images can be obtained by combining multiple, dithered exposures of the same source with a suitable reconstruction algorithm. Any such reconstruction must minimally distort the reconstructed images for weak lensing analyses to be unbiased. In this paper, we use the image combination (IMCOM) algorithm of Rowe, Hirata, and Rhodes to investigate the effect of image combination on shape measurements (size and ellipticity). We simulate dithered images of sources with varying amounts of ellipticity and undersampling, reconstruct oversampled output images from them using IMCOM, and measure shape distortions in the output. Our simulations show that IMCOM creates no significant distortions when the relative offsets between dithered images are precisely known. Distortions increase with the uncertainty in those offsets, but become problematic only with relatively poor astrometric precision; e.g., for images similar to those from the Astrophysics Focused Telescope Asset (AFTA) implementation of WFIRST, combining eight undersampled images (sampling ratio Q = 1) with highly pessimistic uncertainty in astrometric registration (σd ∼ 10-3 pixels) yields an rms shear error of O(10-4). Our analysis pipeline is adapted from that of the Precision Projector Laboratory—a joint project between NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Caltech that characterizes image sensors using laboratory emulations of astronomical data.