Visible Nulling Coronagraphy for Exo-Planetary Detection and Characterization

Abstract

Visible Nulling Coronagraphy (VNC) is the proposed method of detecting and characterizing exo-solar Jovian planets (null depth for a double shear, with the spacing of the successive maxima proportional to the inverse of the relative lateral shear. Combinations of shears and spacecraft rolls build up the spatial frequency content of the sky transmission pattern in the same manner as imaging interferometer builds up the spatial frequency content of the image.