Exoplanet Characterization and the Search for Life (2009)
Kasting, J., Traub, W., Roberge, A., Leger, A., Schwartz, A., Wooten, A., ...
Over 300 extrasolar planets (exoplanets) have been detected orbiting nearby stars. We now hope to conduct a census of all planets around nearby stars and to characterize their atmospheres and...
Defrère, D., Absil, O., Hartog, R. Den, Hanot, C., Stark, C.
Earth-sized planets around nearby stars are being detected for the first time by ground-based radial velocity and space-based transit surveys. This milestone is opening the path towards the...
Darwin —- a mission to detect and search for life on extrasolar planets (2009)
Cockell, C. S., Léger, A., Fridlund, M., Herbst, T. M., Kaltenegger, L., Absil, O., ...
The discovery of extrasolar planets is one of the greatest achievements of modern astronomy. The detection of planets that vary widely in mass demonstrates that extrasolar planets of low mass exist....
Darwin -— an experimental astronomy mission to search for extrasolar planets (2009)
Cockell, Charles S., Herbst, Tom, Léger, Alain, Absil, O., Beichman, Charles, Benz, Willy, ...
As a response to ESA call for mission concepts for its Cosmic Vision 2015–2025 plan, we propose a mission called Darwin. Its primary goal is the study of terrestrial extrasolar planets and the...
Dust in the inner regions of debris disks around a stars (2009)
Akeson, R. L., Ciardi, D. R., Millan-Gabet, R., Merand, A., Di Folco, E., Monnier, J. D., ...
We present infrared interferometric observations of the inner regions of two A-star debris disks, β Leo and ζ Lep, using the FLUOR instrument at the CHARA interferometer on both short (30 m) and...
Milli-arcsecond Astrophysics with VSI, the VLTI Spectro-imager in the ELT Era (2009)
Malbet, F., Buscher, D., Weigelt, G., Garcia, P., Gai, M., Lorenzetti, D., ...
Nowadays, compact sources relatively warm like surfaces of nearby stars, circumstellar environments of stars from early stages to the most evolved ones and surroundings of active galactic nuclei can...
Dust in the inner regions of debris disks around A stars (2008)
Akeson, R. L., Ciardi, D. R., Millan-Gabet, R., Merand, A., Di Folco, E., Monnier, J. D., ...
We present infrared interferometric observations of the inner regions of two A-star debris disks, beta Leo and zeta Lep, using the FLUOR instrument at the CHARA interferometer on both short (30 m)...
Defrère, D., Absil, O., Foresto, V. Coudé Du, Danchi, W. C., Hartog, R. Den
Characterising the circumstellar dust around nearby main sequence stars is a necessary step in understanding the planetary formation process and is crucial for future life-finding space missions such...
System overview of the VLTI Spectro-Imager (2008)
Jocou, L., Berger, J. P., Malbet, F., Kern, P., Beckmann, U., Lorenzetti, D., ...
The VLTI Spectro Imager project aims to perform imaging with a temporal resolution of 1 night and with a maximum angular resolution of 1 milliarcsecond, making best use of the Very Large Telescope...
Prospects for near-infrared characterisation of hot Jupiters with VSI (2008)
Renard, S., Absil, O., Bonfils, X., Forveille, T., Malbet, F.
In this paper, we study the feasibility of obtaining near-infrared spectra of bright extrasolar planets with the 2nd generation VLTI Spectro-Imager instrument (VSI), which has the required angular...
VSI: the VLTI spectro-imager (2008)
Malbet, F., Buscher, D., Weigelt, G., Garcia, P., Gai, M., Lorenzetti, D., ...
The VLTI Spectro Imager (VSI) was proposed as a second-generation instrument of the Very Large Telescope Interferometer providing the ESO community with spectrally-resolved, near-infrared images at...
Absil, O., Di Folco, E., Merand, A., Foresto, V. Coude Du, Defrere, D., ...
High-precision interferometric observations of six early-type main sequence stars known to harbour cold debris discs have been obtained in the near-infrared K band with the FLUOR instrument at the...
DARWIN - A Mission to Detect, and Search for Life on, Extrasolar Planets (2008)
Cockell, C. S., Leger, A., Fridlund, M., Herbst, T., Kaltenegger, L., Absil, O., ...
The discovery of extra-solar planets is one of the greatest achievements of modern astronomy. The detection of planets with a wide range of masses demonstrates that extra-solar planets of low mass...
Milli-arcsecond astrophysics with VSI, the VLTI spectro-imager in the ELT era (2008)
Malbet, F., Buscher, D., Weigelt, G., Garcia, P., Gai, M., Lorenzetti, D., ...
Nowadays, compact sources like surfaces of nearby stars, circumstellar environments of stars from early stages to the most evolved ones and surroundings of active galactic nuclei can be investigated...
Milli-arcsecond astrophysics with VSI, the VLTI spectro-imager in the ELT era (2008)
Malbet, F., Buscher, D., Weigelt, G., Garcia, P., Gai, M., Lorenzetti, D., ...
Nowadays, compact sources like surfaces of nearby stars, circumstellar environments of stars from early stages to the most evolved ones and surroundings of active galactic nuclei can be investigated...
Milli-arcsecond astrophysics with VSI, the VLTI spectro-imager in the ELT era (2008)
Malbet, F., Buscher, D., Weigelt, G., Garcia, P., Gai, M., Lorenzetti, D., ...
Nowadays, compact sources like surfaces of nearby stars, circumstellar environments of stars from early stages to the most evolved ones and surroundings of active galactic nuclei can be investigated...
GENIE: a ground-based European nulling instrument at ESO Very Large Telescope Interferometer (2008)
Gondoin, P., Hartog, R. Den, Fridlund, M., Fabry, P., Stankov, A., Peacock, A., ...
Darwin is one of the most challenging space projects ever considered by the European Space Agency (ESA). Its principal objectives are to detect Earth-like planets around nearby stars, to analyze the...
Di Folco, E., Absil, O., Mérand, A., Foresto, V. Coudé Du, Thévenin, F., ...
We probed the first 3AU around tau Ceti and epsilon Eridani with the CHARA array (Mt Wilson, USA) in order to gauge the 2micron excess flux emanating from possible hot dust grains in the debris disks...
Absil, O., Foresto, V. Coude Du, Barillot, M., Swain, M. R.
Detecting the presence of circumstellar dust around nearby solar-type main sequence stars is an important pre-requisite for the design of future life-finding space missions such as ESA's Darwin or...
Dynamics of Exozodiacal Clouds (2007)
Kuchner, M., Stark, C., Absil, O., Thebault, P.
The inner Solar System contains a cloud of small (1-100 micron) dust grains created when small bodies-asteroids, comets, and Kuiper belt objects-collide and outgas. This dust cloud, the zodiacal...
Circumstellar material in the Vega inner system revealed by CHARA/FLUOR (2006)
Absil, O., Di Folco, E., Merand, A., Foresto, V. Coude Du, Aufdenberg, J. P., ...
Only a handful of debris disks have been imaged up to now. Due to the need for high dynamic range and high angular resolution, very little is known about the inner planetary region, where small...
Aufdenberg, J. P., Merand, A., Foresto, V. Coude Du, Absil, O., Di Folco, E., Kervella, P., ...
We have obtained high-precision interferometric measurements of Vega with the CHARA Array and FLUOR beam combiner in the K' band at projected baselines between 103m and 273m. The measured visibility...
ALADDIN: an optimized nulling ground-based demonstrator for DARWIN (2006)
Absil, O., Swain, M., Vakili, F., Barillot, M.
The ESA Darwin space mission will require a ground based precursor to i/ demonstrate nulling interferometry in an operational context and ii/ carry out some precursor science, such as the...
Absil, O., Hartog, R. Den, Gondoin, P., Fabry, P., Wilhelm, R., Gitton, P., ...
Nulling interferometry, a powerful technique for high-resolution imaging of the close neighbourhood of bright astrophysical objets, is currently considered for future space missions such as Darwin or...