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Encyclopedia of Astrobiology pp 1–5Cite as

Nulling Interferometry

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Synonyms

Dark fringe interferometry

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...

Keywords

  • Coronagraphy
  • Exoplanet detection

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References and Further Reading

  • Angel JRP, Woolf NJ (1997) An imaging nulling interferometer to study extrasolar planets. Astrophys J 475:373–379

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  • Bracewell RN, MacPhie RH (1979) Searching for nonsolar planets. Icarus 38(1):136–147

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  • Cockell CS, Herbst T, Léger A (2008) Darwin, an experimental astronomy mission to search for extrasolar planets. Exp Astron 46

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  • 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

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  • Lay OP (2004) Systematic errors in nulling interferometers. Appl Opt 43(33):6100–6123

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  • Ollivier M (2007) Towards the spectroscopic analysis of Earthlike planets: the DARWIN/TPF project. C R Phys 8(3–4):408–414

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  • 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

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  • Rouan D (2007) Ultra deep nulling interferometry using fractal interferometers. C R Phys 8(3–4):415–425

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  • Rouan D, Pelat D (2008) The achromatic chessboard, a new concept of a phase shifter for nulling interferometry. I Theory Astron Astrophys 484:581

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  • 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

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. LESIA, Observatoire Paris-Site de Meudon, 5 Pl Jules Janssen, 92195, Meudon, France

    Daniel Rouan

Authors
  1. Daniel Rouan
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Correspondence to Daniel Rouan .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Centro de Biología Molecular, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain

    Ricardo Amils

  2. Labo. d'Astrophysique de Bordeaux (LAB), Observatoire Aquitain des Sciences de l'Univers (OASU), Floirac CX, France

    Muriel Gargaud

  3. Centro de Astrobiología (CAB), Inst. Nacional de Técnica Aeroespacial, Torrejón de Ardoz, Madrid, Spain

    José Cernicharo Quintanilla

  4. Geophysical Lab., Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington, District of Columbia, USA

    Henderson James Cleaves

  5. Astronomy Department, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts, USA

    William M. Irvine

  6. Dépt. Sc. de la Terre et de l’Atmosphère, Université du Québec, Montréal, Montreal, Québec, Canada

    Daniele Pinti

  7. Centre National d'Etudes Spatiale (CNES) DPI/E2U, Paris CX, France

    Michel Viso

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Rouan, D. (2014). Nulling Interferometry. In: , et al. Encyclopedia of Astrobiology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27833-4_1088-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27833-4_1088-2

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-27833-4

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Chapter History

  1. Latest

    Nulling Interferometry
    Published:
    30 March 2023

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27833-4_1088-3

  2. Original

    Nulling Interferometry
    Published:
    02 May 2015

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27833-4_1088-2