Ftaclas to Build Camera for Finding Planetary Systems
By Dean Woodbeck
Professor Christ Ftaclas (Physics)
is the lead scientist on a multi-million-dollar project to build a camera
to study the origin and evolution of extrasolar planetary systems--planet
systems orbiting stars other than our sun.
Ftaclas will be working with
Mauna Kea Infrared, LLC. The Hilo, Hawaii-based company received a $4.18
million federal grant to build the Near Infrared Coronagraphic Imager.
NICI will correct for atmospheric
blurring to obtain sharp images from two 8-meter (about 25 feet in diameter)
Gemini telescopes. The two-ton camera, which will be about twice the size
of a phone booth, will reduce the background halo of light from the star
and detect the very faint structures associated with developing planetary The first-of-its kind instrument
is being designed specifically for two giant telescopes--one in Hawaii
and one in Chile. "We're very excited about this," said Douglas
Toomey, owner and founder of Mauna Kea Infrared. "NICI will be a
unique instrument on outstanding telescopes. Our neighboring stars are
quite close to us, but we know almost nothing about the planetary systems
around them. NICI has the potential to expand our knowledge of these systems
and to let us study them."
"Planetary systems, by
definition, form around a parent star," Ftaclas points out. "But
the star is 1-to-10 billion times brighter than we expect planets to be.
Whenever you try to observe the birth and evolution of planetary systems,
you are necessarily blinded by the parent star."
Thus the need for the coronagraphic
camera, an optical instrument that eliminates the light from the star
itself and reduces its halo or corona.
"It's not just that the
central star is there and it is bright," Ftaclas said. "But
it also produces a halo from scattered and diffracted light. That halo
is the problem in trying to see distant planet systems."
The coronagraph uses adaptive
optics--wave front sensors, computers, and adjustable mirrors--to compensate
for atmospheric blurring and the impact of the star's halo.
The NICI is the first-ever
camera system to attempt to overcome the star's light and corona and detect
a planetary system. In combination with the new Gemini telescopes in Hawaii
and Chile, it will help astronomers better understand how planetary systems
form and evolve.
Up to this point, scientists
have used only indirect methods in their search for extrasolar planetary
systems. They measure various dynamics and behaviors of a star to infer
the existence of planets.
"We want to study actual
images," Ftaclas says. "That is why we work primarily with coronagraphic
instruments to reduce the impact of the central star."
Scientists estimate that it
will take nearly four years to construct the camera. For more information,
visit http://mkir.com. A picture of the
NICI instrument is located at http://mkir.com/NICI_Project/nici_project_overview.htm
systems.
