Exoplanets through extreme optics: from PLATO to SHARK-NIR

TL;DR

This paper discusses advanced optical instrumentation for exoplanet detection, focusing on the development and validation of the PLATO space mission's multi-telescope system and the ground-based SHARK-NIR instrument with adaptive optics for direct imaging.

Contribution

It presents the design, assembly, and validation processes of innovative optical systems for exoplanet search missions, including a large-field refractive telescope array and a high-contrast adaptive optics instrument.

Findings

Validated the optical performance of the PLATO Telescope Optical Unit prototype.

Successfully performed optical alignment and qualification of the SHARK-NIR instrument.

Enhanced capabilities for exoplanet detection through advanced optical solutions.

Abstract

In the last years, the Observatory of Padova (Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica - Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova) and the University of Padova have been involved massively in projects dedicated to the exoplanets search, both ground, and space-based. The activities concerning my Ph.D. have been exploited both in the framework of the space projects and in the field of ground instrumentation. PLATO, the acronym of "PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations of stars", is a ESA mission o with the target to detect and characterize exoplanets utilizing their transit on a bright star. The overall instrumental layout consists of a multi-telescope concept instrument, composed by several tens of telescope units, for which it has developed an all-refractive optical solution. These devices are characterized by a very large Field of View (>20 degrees on one side) with an optical quality that fits most of the energy into a single sensor pixel. I participated in the Assembly, Integration, and Verification (AIV) of the Telescope Optical Unit prototype, to validate the AIV procedure and the telescope optical performance in-flight conditions. SHARK-NIR, the acronym of "System for coronagraphy with High order Adaptive optics from R to K band - Near-Infrared", is an instrument designed to search and characterize the young exo-planetary system and star-forming regions in the NIR domain, in coronagraphic direct imaging and spectroscopic mode. It has been selected for the 2nd generation Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) instruments, and it will take advantage of the excellent performance of the LBT eXtreme Adaptive Optics (XAO) correction, necessary for SHARK-NIR to achieve the best possible coronagraphic performance, which is mandatory to detect faint planets orbiting around bright stars. Concerning SHARK, my activity has been performing optical alignment and qualification of the instrument.