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Published September 14, 2005 | Version Published
Book Section - Chapter Open

Fourier-Kelvin stellar interferometer (FKSI): a progress report and preliminary results from our nulling testbed

Creators

  • 1. ROR icon Johns Hopkins University
  • 2. ROR icon Goddard Space Flight Center
  • 3. ROR icon University of Maryland, College Park
  • 4. ROR icon California Institute of Technology
  • 5. ROR icon Princeton University
  • 6. ROR icon University of Michigan–Ann Arbor
  • 7. ROR icon Carnegie Institution for Science
  • 8. ROR icon Space Telescope Science Institute
  • 9. ROR icon Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics

Contributors

Abstract

The Fourier-Kelvin Stellar Interferometer (FKSI) is a mission concept for an imaging and nulling interferometer for the near infrared to mid-infrared spectral region (3-8 microns). FKSI is a scientific and technological pathfinder to TPF/DARWIN as well as SPIRIT, SPECS, and SAFIR. It will also be a high angular resolution system complementary to JWST. There are four key scientific issues the FKSI mission is designed to address. First, we plan to characterize the atmospheres of the known extra-solar giant planets. Second, we will explore the morphology of debris disks to look for resonant structures to find and characterize extrasolar planets. Third, we will observe young stellar systems to understand their evolution and planet forming potential, and study circumstellar material around a variety of stellar types to better understand their evolutionary state. Finally, we plan to measure detailed structures inside active galactic nuclei. We report results of simulation studies of the imaging capabilities of the FKSI with various configurations of two to five telescopes including the effects of thermal noise and local and exozodiacal dust emission. We also report preliminary results from our symmetric Mach-Zehnder nulling testbed.

Additional Information

© 2005 Society of Photo-optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). This work was supported in part by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center's Internal Research and Development (IRAD) and Director's Discretionary Fund (DDF) programs.

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Additional details

Identifiers

Eprint ID
92386
Resolver ID
CaltechAUTHORS:20190122-075634496

Funding

NASA

Dates

Created
2019-01-22
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Updated
2021-11-16
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Caltech Custom Metadata

Series Name
Proceedings of SPIE
Series Volume or Issue Number
5905