Short Course:
Hybrid Space-Ground Observatories: Revolutionizing the Search for Earth-Like Exoplanets
Monday, March 9, 2026
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.
Short Course Presentations |
|
| John Mather NASA Goddard Space Flight Center |
Hybrid Space-Ground Observatories (.pdf) |
| Amber Young NASA Headquarters |
Exploring New Worlds: Exoplanet Discoveries, Challenges, and Future Frontiers (.pdf) |
| Stuart Shaklan JPL |
Starshades (.pdf) |
| Ahmed Soliman JPL |
Seeing Clearly - Observing Through Earth's Atmosphere (.pdf) |
| Markus Kasper European Southern Observatory |
Extremely Large Telescopes - AO and Extreme AO (.pdf) |
| Eliad Peretz NASA Goddard Space Flight Center |
Orbital Dynamics (.pdf) |
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 – "Exploring New Worlds: Exoplanet Discoveries, Challenges, and Future Frontiers" – Amber Young, NASA Headquarters
- A Brief History of Exoplanet Discovery
- "Earth Cousins": The Current Search for Habitable Worlds
- "Earth Twins": How to Find, Identify, and Characterize Them
- Challenges and Future
Talk 3 – "Starshades" – Stuart Shaklan, JPL
- Principles of starshade operation
- 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