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High-contrast imaging observations of exoplanetary systems: current status and future perspectives |
| Valentina D'Orazi |
| Observatory of Padova |
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Thanks to notable advancements in adaptive optics combined with coronagraphic observational strategies, high-contrast
imaging techniques are rapidly progressing in the current years. The exploration of the
sub-stellar regime via direct imaging, hampered so far by technical limitations, is starting to provide us with a
powerful tool, thanks to the advent of new-generation instruments, such as e.g., GPI or ScEXAO. SPHERE at VLT is a
new facility that combining extreme adaptive optics with coronagraphy, dual-band imaging, and integral field
spectroscopy has recently started its operations and aims at revealing relatively massive exoplanets at few tenths of
arcsecond separations and contrasts better than 10^6. In this talk I will present recent results obtained with SPHERE
in the framework of the exoplanet detection and characterization. Moreover, I will present a new system for
coronagraphy with high-order adaptive optics that will be operating at LBT by the end of 2018: SHARK. This system
will provide coronagraphic observations from visual to NIR bands, granting a very powerful tool that is not currently
available for any other instrument in the world. Finally, I will discuss the employment of a brand-new technique that
combines high-contrast imaging with high-dispersion spectroscopy, allowing in principle to reach contrasts down to
10^10. In the era of E-ELT, this will open the way to investigating
earth-like planets in the habitable zones of their parent stars.
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