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Submission: On January 30 via api from US — Scanned from DE
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Published:
Aug 25, 2016
STARSHADE TO ENABLE FIRST IMAGES OF EARTH-SIZED EXOPLANETS
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Technology Development: Currently, astronomers can investigate Earth-sized
exoplanets using only indirect methods such as detecting the changes in
starlight as a planet passes in front of its star. The starshade (also known as
an external occulter) is a spacecraft that will enable telescopes in space to
take pictures of planets orbiting faraway stars. The starshade is designed to
fly in front of a telescope and block the immense glare from a star’s light
before it enters the telescope, allowing the planet’s reflected light to pass
through and be collected. Models predict the starshade can achieve the required
10-10 contrast levels required to detect Earth-sized planets in the habitable
zones of their stars. To successfully achieve starlight blocking, the starshade
must unfurl and expand in space to almost the size of a baseball diamond (34 m
diameter). The starshade’s razor-sharp petals redirect the effects of
diffraction—the bending of starlight around the petal edges producing unwanted
glare—and create a dark shadow for the trailing telescope to fly in. The
starshade and telescope are separated by as much as 50,000 km—almost four Earth
diameters.
An artist’s depiction of the fully-deployed starshade spacecraft (left) next to
the spacetelescope it supports. The two spacecraft must fly in almost perfect
alignment to allow thetelescope to stay in the shadow created by the starshade.
Impact: The starshade and the coronagraph (also known as an internal occulter)
are the two technologies NASA intends to advance to enable the first image of an
Earth-like planet (for more information on coronagraph technology, see the entry
on the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope [WFIRST] coronagraph on page 8).
Achieving the detection sensitivities required to image exo- Earths and look for
evidence of life in their atmospheres is very difficult. Researchers do not know
enough at this time to decide which approach will be more successful, so it is
advantageous for NASA to pursue both technologies to learn more. By blocking a
star’s light outside of the telescope, rather than on the inside, the starshade
concept significantly reduces the cost and complexity of the trailing telescope.
In fact, the starshade is compatible with any type of future visible and near
infrared telescope mirror—an on-axis monolith like the 2.4-m WFIRST or a large
multisegmented mirror like the 10-m-class Large Ultra-Violet Optical Infrared
(LUVOIR) concept. The starshade also offers the opportunity to be launched
separately, and can potentially rendezvous at a later date with any
starshadecompatible telescope.
Status and Future Plans: Scaled prototypes of the starshade petals, expandable
inner disk, and opaque origami shield have already been produced through
NASAfunded SAT awards to Princeton University and JPL teams. Optical
demonstrations by Principal Investigators (PIs) from industrial partner Northrop
Grumman were conducted in 2015 across a 2-km stretch of dried lake bed in the
Nevada desert. These demonstrations have helped engineers understand the
starshade’s capabilities. A second optical demonstration effort began in 2015
with the assembly of an enclosed 78-m testbed at Princeton University; first
light is scheduled for the spring of 2016.
A 10-m prototype of the starshade’s inner disk is demonstrated at NASA’s Jet
Propulsion Laboratory.
Sponsoring Organization: This technology is currently being funded through the
Astrophysics Division’s SAT program and Exoplanet Exploration Program. The
starshade development effort is led by NASA JPL, PI Jeremy Kasdin at Princeton
University, and PI Tiffany Glassman at Northrop Grumman Corporation.
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TECHNOLOGY HIGHLIGHTS ARCHIVE
Technology Highlights 2020
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Last updated: January 30, 2023