Exoplanets Revealed: High Contrast Integral Field Spectroscopy at Palomar Observatory

Hinkley Sasha, Los Angeles CA

Investigators

Abstract

Dr. Sasha Hinkley is awarded an NSF Astronomy and Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellowship to carry out a program of research and education at the California Institute of Technology. In this project the fellow will perform a high-contrast imaging survey for exoplanets around nearby stars using a new instrument recently commissioned at Palomar Observatory. This instrument, an Integral Field Spectrogragh combined with a coronagraph, works in conjunction with the Palomar Adaptive Optics system to achieve high-contrast images and spectroscopy of exoplanets. The fellow has been one of the central architects for this instrument, the first of its kind and the only one in the Northern Hemisphere. The fellow will use this suite of instrumentation to carry out a high-contrast, adaptive optics survey of nearby A and F stars with the goal of obtaining images and spectroscopy of exoplanets of several Jupiter masses. Obtaining these data will provide a more complete picture of the true frequency of exoplanets. The spectroscopic information will also allow investigators to gather information about the chemistry, composition, and thermal histories of these exoplanets, opening the door to the new field of comparative exoplanetary science. The broader impacts of this project include a significant educational component. The fellow will create a set of inquiry-based physics laboratories for high school students in the Pasadena Unified School District. He will work with the Director of the Caltech Pre-College Science Initiative (CAPSI) to develop these exercises and work with local teachers and educators to implement them. CAPSI's effort to support inquiry-based learning in local high school science classrooms is a nascent five-year program, and the fellow will begin contributing immediately. The ultimate goal of CAPSI's program is to create a district-wide model that will have broad impacts both locally and nationally.