Creating an Eclipse: Coronagraphs Explained Quiz

If a star is significantly brighter than its orbiting planets, and if that glare hides the faint planets from our view, then a coronagraph acts as a shield to remove the starlight so the planet becomes visible.

If a Sun-like star emits 10^10 more photons than its planet reflects, and if those photons flood the telescope's sensors, then specialized imaging techniques are required to suppress the star's light to see the planet.

If a coronagraph is a series of masks and mirrors built into the camera system, then it is considered an internal component of the telescope's hardware rather than an external spacecraft.

If the Sun's corona is too faint to see against the brightness of the Sun's surface, and if astronomers needed a way to study it without waiting for an eclipse, then the coronagraph was developed to create an artificial eclipse.

If the star is located at the center of the image and the planet is at the edge, and if an opaque disk is placed exactly in the center, then the star's light is physically obstructed while the planet's light passes by.

If light behaves as a wave and diffracts (bends) around the edges of an occulting mask, and if that stray light creates a ring of glare, then a second mask called a Lyot stop is required to filter out that unwanted diffraction.

If the distance between two objects in the sky is measured in angles, and if a planet is further from the star's central mask, then it is less likely to be hidden by the star's remaining glare.

If the coronagraph blocks a circular region around the star, then any planet inside that radius is also hidden; if the edge of that region defines the limit of detection, then that limit is the Inner Working Angle.

If a coronagraph requires perfect alignment of light waves to cancel them out, then atmospheric blurring, mirror bumps, heat-induced shifting, and physical vibrations will all cause starlight to "leak" past the mask.

If the Earth's atmosphere distorts light waves and makes stars "twinkle," and if a coronagraph requires extremely stable and undistorted light, then space is the ideal environment to achieve high-precision light suppression.

If an Earth-sized planet is 10 billion times dimmer than its star, and if a 1/10^10 ratio is required to see the planet, then the telescope must be capable of that level of light suppression to succeed.

If the coronagraph and adaptive optics work together to perfectly cancel out starlight in a specific region of the image, then that region appears as a black void where planets can be spotted, known as the dark hole.

If the transit method measures a drop in a star's brightness as a planet passes in front, and if a coronagraph blocks the star to capture an actual image of the planet, then they are two entirely different observation techniques.

If tiny imperfections in the light path cause starlight to leak around the coronagraph mask, and if a flexible mirror can change its shape to correct those waves, then Adaptive Optics is the technology that ensures the star's light is perfectly blocked.

If JWST is equipped with multiple coronagraphic masks in its NIRCam and MIRI instruments, and if those masks allow it to see faint disks and planets around bright stars, then the statement is factually correct.

If a mission is designed for exoplanet or stellar environment imaging, it includes a coronagraph; Hubble and Webb have them, and the Roman telescope will test a highly advanced "active" coronagraph system.

If a coronagraph is internal to the telescope, and if a starshade is a separate, flower-shaped spacecraft positioned thousands of miles away to cast a shadow, then the starshade is an external method of blocking light.

If astronomers are capturing the actual photons reflected or emitted by the planet rather than inferring its presence through gravity or shadows, then the technique is called direct imaging.

If young planets are still hot from their formation and glow in infrared, and if being far from the star keeps them away from the central glare, then "hot Jupiters" in wide orbits are the most detectable targets.

If a coronagraph can isolate the light of a planet from its star, and if that light is passed through a prism to see its spectrum, then researchers can identify specific gases like methane or oxygen in the planet's atmosphere.