New concept for direct detection and spectra of exoplanets

We present a novel spectral imaging method for characterization of exoplanets. This method uses 4 collecting telescopes, in a pattern similar to TPF-I or Darwin, combined with phase chopping. Focusing on contiguous observing wavelengths in space, the (u, v) plane can be simultaneously filled by the use of the contiguous observing wavelengths instead of continuously rotating the baselines. For a target comprising a star and a planet, observations on two baselines are sufficient to extract an image of the planetary system and a spectrum of the planet. Our simulations show that this new method allows us to detect an analog Earth around a Sun-like star at 10pc and to acquire its spectrum over the wavelength range from 8 to 18μm.