Abstract
In Spring 2013, the LEECH (LBTI Exozodi Exoplanet Common Hunt) survey began its ∼130-night campaign from the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) atop Mt Graham, Arizona. This survey benefits from the many technological achievements of the LBT, including two 8.4-meter mirrors on a single fixed mount, dual adaptive secondary mirrors for high Strehl performance, and a cold beam combiner to dramatically reduce the telescope's overall background emissivity. LEECH neatly complements other high-contrast planet imaging efforts by observing stars at L' (3.8 μm), as opposed to the shorter wavelength near-infrared bands (1-2.4 μm) of other surveys. This portion of the spectrum offers deep mass sensitivity, especially around nearby adolescent (∼0.1-1 Gyr) stars. LEECH's contrast is competitive with other extreme adaptive optics systems, while providing an alternative survey strategy. Additionally, LEECH is characterizing known exoplanetary systems with observations from 3-5μm in preparation for JWST.
Original language | English (US) |
---|---|
Title of host publication | Adaptive Optics Systems IV |
Editors | Jean-Pierre Veran, Enrico Marchetti, Laird M. Close |
Publisher | SPIE |
ISBN (Electronic) | 9780819496164 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 2014 |
Event | Adaptive Optics Systems IV - Montreal, Canada Duration: Jun 22 2014 → Jun 27 2014 |
Publication series
Name | Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering |
---|---|
Volume | 9148 |
ISSN (Print) | 0277-786X |
ISSN (Electronic) | 1996-756X |
Other
Other | Adaptive Optics Systems IV |
---|---|
Country/Territory | Canada |
City | Montreal |
Period | 6/22/14 → 6/27/14 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2014 SPIE.
Keywords
- adaptive optics