Collaborative Research: Deploying the Gemini Planet Imager 2.0: Completion, Commissioning, and Facility Delivery

The Gemini Planet Imager (GPI) is an instrument designed to image giant, extrasolar planets and rings of asteroids orbiting nearby, young stars. It is among the most advanced exoplanet imaging instrument available to the entire US astronomical community. GPI uses cutting-edge technologies to correct for the blurring caused by the turbulence in Earth's atmosphere and to block the light of bright stars so that we can take infrared images and spectra of their planets. This project completes extensive, cutting-edge technological upgrades to GPI already underway. These upgrades enable GPI to observe fainter, younger stars, to study planets earlier in their formation, to detect planets with masses similar to Jupiter, and to operate more efficiently. This project supports training of early-career researchers in laboratory development and operational astronomy at a premier international observatory. GPI was originally installed on the Gemini South telescope in Chile in 2013. GPI uses adaptive optics (AO) to correct for atmospheric turbulence, coronagraphic masks to block the light of bright stars, and an infrared integral field spectrograph (IFS) to image and study Jovian exoplanets and debris disks. This project completes transformative improvements to all three of these components, begun in an earlier award. These upgrades improve GPI's contrast, sensitivity, and observing efficiency. The AO, IFS and coronograph mask upgrades improve GPI's limiting magnitude to allow observations of significantly fainter target stars, opening up observations of younger stars to study planets earlier in their formation, and significantly increasing the number of directly-imaged planets with detailed atmospheric characterization. Along with the relocation of GPI to Gemini North in Hawaii, these upgrades enable GPI to address key questions about planet formation, evolution and atmospheric composition, as well as open up new areas of high-contrast imaging of sources within our solar system and even beyond our Galaxy. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria. NSF Award ID: 2606890 | Program: 01002627DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT | Principal Investigator: Dmitry Savransky | Institution: Cornell University, ITHACA, NY | Award Amount: $207,147 View on NSF Award Search: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/show-award/?AWD_ID=2606890 View on Research.gov: https://www.research.gov/awardapi-service/v1/awards/2606890.html