Synonyms
Definition
Nulling interferometry is the name given to an instrumental technique based on interferences between several telescopes and aiming at detecting directly exoplanets. The principle is to create a virtual “blind spot” at the exact location of a bright source, a star, in order to reveal the much fainter source, which is a planet orbiting it.
Overview
This technique is a variant of coronagraphy and aims at reducing the extreme contrast of intensity that may exist between two objects very close one to the other, as a star-planet system, but here the solution lies in the interferometric recombination of radiation from several telescopes. Coronagraphy is used primarily in the visible and near infrared: the angular resolution of a large telescope is indeed ten times better than the angle subtended by a planetary orbit of 1 AU at a distance of 10 pc; however, the star-planet contrast still remains very high (typically 1010). On the other hand, in...
References and Further Reading
Angel JRP, Woolf NJ (1997) An imaging nulling interferometer to study extrasolar planets. Astrophys J 475:373–379
Bracewell RN (1978) Detecting nonsolar planets by spinning infrared interferometer. Nature 274:780–781
Bracewell RN, MacPhie RH (1979) Searching for nonsolar planets. Icarus 38(1):136–147
Cockell CS, Herbst T, Léger A (2008) Darwin, an experimental astronomy mission to search for extrasolar planets. Exp Astron 46
Defrère D, Absil O, Coudé du Foresto V, Danchi WC, den Hartog R (2008) Nulling interferometry: performance comparison between space and ground-based sites for exozodiacal disc detection. Astron Astrophys 490:435
Lay OP (2004) Systematic errors in nulling interferometers. Appl Opt 43(33):6100–6123
Léger A, Mariotti JM, Mennesson B et al (1996) Icarus 123:249
Ollivier M (2007) Towards the spectroscopic analysis of Earthlike planets: the DARWIN/TPF project. C R Phys 8(3–4):408–414
Peters R, Lay O, Lawson P (2010) Mid-infrared adaptive nulling for the detection of earthlike exoplanets. Publ Astron Soc Pac 122(887):85–92
Rouan D (2007) Ultra deep nulling interferometry using fractal interferometers. C R Phys 8(3–4):415–425
Rouan D, Pelat D (2008) The achromatic chessboard, a new concept of a phase shifter for nulling interferometry. I Theory Astron Astrophys 484:581
Serabyn E (2000) Nulling interferometry: symmetry requirements and experimental results. In: Léna P, Quirrenbach A (eds) Interferometry in optical astronomy, Proceeding of SPIE, vol 4006, pp 328–339
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this entry
Cite this entry
Rouan, D. (2014). Nulling Interferometry. In: Amils, R., et al. Encyclopedia of Astrobiology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27833-4_1088-2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27833-4_1088-2
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-27833-4
eBook Packages: Springer Reference Physics and AstronomyReference Module Physical and Materials ScienceReference Module Chemistry, Materials and Physics
Publish with us
Chapter history
-
Latest
Nulling Interferometry- Published:
- 30 March 2023
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27833-4_1088-3
-
Original
Nulling Interferometry- Published:
- 02 May 2015
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27833-4_1088-2