Design of an orbiting stellar interferometer for planet detection

Jeffrey W. Yu; Michael Shao; M. Mark Colavita; Marc D. Rayman

doi:10.1117/12.155743

10 September 1993 Design of an orbiting stellar interferometer for planet detection

Jeffrey W. Yu, Michael Shao, M. Mark Colavita, Marc D. Rayman

Proceedings Volume 1947, Spaceborne Interferometry; (1993) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.155743
Event: Optical Engineering and Photonics in Aerospace Sensing, 1993, Orlando, FL, United States

Abstract

SONATA--Small OSI (Orbiting Stellar Interferometer) for Narrow angle Astrometry with Two Apertures--is a concept for a space based interferometer capable of detecting extra-solar planets. The instrument is an extension of the TOPS-0 interferometer testbed concept which is a ground-based dual feed interferometer, and the space-based OSI concept, which is being studied for the Astrophysics Division of NASA. The SONATA instrument uses a quadruple- feed interferometer which will be capable of measuring fringes on four stars simultaneously within a 10 arcminute field of view. The starlight is collected by two 0.4 meter telescopes separated by 7 meters. The use of common collecting optics results in cancellation of a large number of systematic errors found in multiple baseline designs. The targeted astrometric accuracy for SONATA is 0.5 uas. In the photon-noise limit, this performance can be achieved on 14th magnitude objects by integrating for 4 hours. This level of accuracy will enable detection of nearby Earth type planets. The SONATA design uses a non-deploying structure and will be launched on an Atlas II/Centaur for insertion into a 900 km Sun-synchronous orbit.

Citation Download Citation

Jeffrey W. Yu, Michael Shao, M. Mark Colavita, and Marc D. Rayman "Design of an orbiting stellar interferometer for planet detection", Proc. SPIE 1947, Spaceborne Interferometry, (10 September 1993); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.155743

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