KECK INSTITUTE FOR SPACE STUDIES

     

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Keck Institute for Space Studies

Short Course:
Hybrid Space-Ground Observatories: Revolutionizing the Search for Earth-Like Exoplanets

Monday, October 20, 2025

8:15 A.M. Coffee
8:45 A.M. - 12:30 P.M. Short Course (Informal lunch will be provided for all attendees)
Chen 100 Lecture Hall, Chen Neuroscience Research Building, California Institute of Technology

All interested researchers and students are invited to attend. No registration is required for the short course. Seating is limited and is available on a first come, first served basis.


Hybrid Space-Ground Observatories: Revolutionizing the Search for Earth-Like Exoplanets short course poster

Program:

Talk 1 – "Hybrid Space-Ground Observatories" – John Mather, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

  • Hybrid Observatory Missions, proposed and funded
  • A Hybrid Starshade - Ground-based telescope concept for exoplanet characterization
  • Feasibility and challenges
  • Current efforts


Talk 2 – "Exoplanet Science and Discoveries" – Sara Seager, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  • A Brief History of Exoplanet Discovery
  • "Earth Cousins": The Current Search for Habitable Worlds
  • "Earth Twins": How to Find and Identify Them
  • Challenges
  • Future


Talk 3 – "Starshade" – Stuart Shaklan, JPL

  • Principles
  • Technology status
  • Tolerances and optical performance for a hybrid observatory - KISS concept
  • Imaging simulations


Talk 4 – "Seeing Clearly - Observing Through Earth's Atmosphere" – Ahmed Soliman, JPL

  • Brief history of challenges and discoveries
  • Expected performance with a hybrid ground telescopes- starshade system
  • Understanding the atmospheric turbulence & AO mitigation
  • Learned lessons and future work


Talk 5 – "Extremely Large Telescopes - AO and Extreme AO" – Markus Kasper, European Southern Observatory

  • Observatories under development: design overview, key capabilities and timeline
  • State of the art of current and upcoming ExAO instruments for ELT
  • Future ELT exoplanet imager and spectrograph instruments


Talk 6 – "Orbital Dynamics" – Eliad Peretz, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

  • Observational, re-target requirements, payload capabilities and adaptations
  • Classes of solutions and preferred ones
  • Fuel and mission lifetime





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