Gemini Planet Imager

The instrument achieves high contrast at small angular separations, allowing for the direct imaging and integral field spectroscopy of extrasolar planets around nearby stars.

tunable laser source was used for this and helped determine that, at its most efficient wavelength, the imager could detect a planet only slightly more massive than Jupiter around a 100-million-year-old Sun-like star.

[4] The spectrograph, developed by UCLA and Montreal, images and takes spectra of any detected companion to the star, with a spectral resolving power of 34 - 83, depending on wavelength.

The expected instrument performance will allow for detection of companions one ten millionth as bright as their hosts at angular separations of roughly 0.2-1 arcseconds, down to an H band magnitude of 23.

Existing adaptive optics instruments become ineffective at small angular separations, limiting them to semi-major axes larger than about 30 astronomical units.

The high contrast of the Gemini Planet Imager at small angular separations will allow it to detect gas giants with semi-major axes of 5–30 astronomical units.