First light of the Gemini Planet Imager

The Gemini Planet Imager is a dedicated facility for directly imaging and spectroscopically characterizing extrasolar planets. It combines a very high-order adaptive optics system, a diffraction-suppressing coronagraph, and an integral field spectrograph with low spectral resolution but high spatial resolution. Every aspect of the Gemini Planet Imager has been tuned for maximum sensitivity to faint planets near bright stars. During first-light observations, we achieved an estimated H band Strehl ratio of 0.89 and a 5-σ contrast of 10(6) at 0.75 arcseconds and 10(5) at 0.35 arcseconds. Observations of Beta Pictoris clearly detect the planet, Beta Pictoris b, in a single 60-s exposure with minimal…

• NS
  National Science Foundation

  Awards: 0909188, 1211562, AST-0909188, DE-AC52-07NA27344
• UD
  U.S. Department of Energy

  Award: AC52-07NA27344
• NA
  National Aeronautics and Space Administration

  Awards: NNX10AH31G, DE-AC52-07NA27344, NNX11AD21G
• UO
  University of California, Santa Cruz

  Award: DE-AC52-07NA27344
• CI
  California Institute of Technology
• NE
  NASA Exoplanet Science Institute
• UO
  University of Toronto
• JP
  Jet Propulsion Laboratory
• OO
  Office of the President, University of California
• LL
  Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

  Awards: DE-AC52-07NA27344, AC52-07NA27344