1. The Exoplanet Transmission Spectroscopy Imager (ETSI)
- Author
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Limbach, Mary Anne, Schmidt, Luke M., DePoy, D. L., Mason, Jeffrey C., Scobey, Mike, Brown, Pat, Taylor, Chelsea, and Marshall, Jennifer L.
- Subjects
Astrophysics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics ,Astrophysics - Earth and Planetary Astrophysics ,Astrophysics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics - Abstract
We present the design of a novel instrument tuned to detect transiting exoplanet atmospheres. The instrument, which we call the exoplanet transmission spectroscopy imager (ETSI), makes use of a new technique called common-path multi-band imaging (CMI). ETSI uses a prism and multi-band filter to simultaneously image 15 spectral bandpasses on two detectors from $430-975nm$ (with a average spectral resolution of $R = \lambda/\Delta\lambda = 23$) during exoplanet transits of a bright star. A prototype of the instrument achieved photon-noise limited results which were below the atmospheric amplitude scintillation noise limit. ETSI can detect the presence and composition of an exoplanet atmosphere in a relatively short time on a modest-size telescope. We show the optical design of the instrument. Further, we discuss design trades of the prism and multi-band filter which are driven by the science of the ETSI instrument. We describe the upcoming survey with ETSI that will measure dozens of exoplanet atmosphere spectra in $\sim2$ years on a two meter telescope. Finally, we will discuss how ETSI will be a powerful means for follow up on all gas giant exoplanets that transit bright stars, including a multitude of recently identified TESS (NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) exoplanets., Comment: 14 pages, 9 figures, Proc. of SPIE 11447-100
- Published
- 2020