Hawaii company, Michigan Tech researcher to build camera for finding extrasolar planetary systems

HOUGHTON, Mich.--Mauna Kea Infrared, LLC, a Hilo, Hawaii-based small business, has received a $4.18 million federal grant to build a camera to study the origin and evolution of extrasolar planetary systems--planetary systems orbiting stars other than our sun. The first-of-its-kind instrument is being designed specifically for two giant telescopes--one in Hawaii and one in Chile.

Douglas Toomey, owner and founder of Mauna Kea Infrared, is collaborating with Dr. Christ Ftaclas, professor of physics at Michigan Technological University, who is the project chief scientist.

The Near Infrared Coronagraphic Imager (NICI) will correct for atmospheric blurring to obtain sharp images from two eight-meter Gemini telescopes. The camera will reduce the background halo of light from the star and detect the very faint structures associated with developing planetary systems.

�We�re very excited about this,� Toomey said. �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 to 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 1-10 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 planets."

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 planet. 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 planets. 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."

Ftaclas has extensive experience with cameras and telescopes. He is part of a growing group of physicists at Michigan Tech devoted to building instruments for astronomy. In addition to the study of distant planets, these astronomers are

• working on the electronics for the Pierre Auger project, a series of 1,600 cosmic ray detectors
• developing the optics on a satellite-based remote sensing system
• building a miniature observatory that fits in a large briefcase

Mauna Kea Infrared has built instruments and equipment for organizations such as UCLA, Harvard, Smithsonian, and the U.S. Naval Observatory and specializes in cryogenic infrared instrumentation and array electronics for professional astronomy. Mauna Kea received the grant from the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA). The funding is supplied by NASA through the National Science Foundation and administered by AURA.

NICI Facts

NICI will be about the size of two phone booths and weigh about two tons. The optics, electronics, and mechanical structures will all be custom designed and largely built in Hawaii. Expected completion time is nearly four years.

Gemini is an international collaboration of academic institutions building twin 8-meter telescopes in Chile and on Mauna Kea http://www.gemini.edu.

NICI has two imaging channels. Each channel has its own 1024x1024 pixel infrared detector sensitive to 0.8 to 5.5 micron wavelength light. NICI's operating wavelength range begins just beyond the longest wavelengths detectable to the human eye and extends to the thermal infrared radiation characteristic of room temperature bodies. NICI must work in the infrared because the planetary structures we seek are much cooler than the hot stars they orbit.

More information about Mauna Kea Infrared can be found at http://mkir.com

Contacts: Dr. Christ Ftaclas 906-487-2832, [email protected]; Douglas Toomey 808-933-1814, [email protected] or [email protected].