The Exo-Life Finder (ELF) Telescope: Advanced strategies for Extreme Adaptive Optics and cophasing for an extremely large telescope dedicated to extremely high contrast
Detecting an exoplanetary life signal is extremely challenging with current & Technology because it relies on very sensitive telescope and instruments that can reach very high contrast. This requires highly accurate adaptive optics, a coronagraphic system, and a specially designed giant telescope. We present here new strategies for building such a telescope with large circular segments using extreme adaptive optics correction independently for each of these segments prior to cophasing the segments. We present new simulation and experimental results for selecting the best wavefront control strategy, which meet the ELF telescope requirements. At the end we demonstrate that a natural star can be used successfully to cophase in real time the ELF telescope and to drive the XAO system, reaching very high contrast compatible with direct imaging of extrasolar planets and detecting exoplanetary life signal.