AstroPIC: Integrated Photonics for Exoplanet Imaging

Date: Wednesday, September 3, 2025
Time: 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm
Presenter: Dr. Rachel Morgan
Location: 1st Floor Program Room

Seating is limited. Registration is recommended. Walk-ins are also welcome.

Join us for a fascinating talk with Dr. Rachel Morgan, Optical Scientist at NASA Ames Research Center and the SETI Institute. She will share how new coronagraph technology could make it possible to directly image distant Earth-like exoplanets.

Direct imaging of Earth-like exoplanets is critical to the search for extraterrestrial life. Capturing the light from Exo-Earths is challenging because an Earth-like planet is 10 billion times dimmer than its host star, meaning that extremely precise and complex optical systems called coronagraphs are required to block out the starlight while preserving the planet signal. The AstroPIC project is applying a new type of optical technology to tackle this challenge by using a programmable photonic integrated circuit to separate the starlight from the planet light with an instrument that promises to be orders of magnitude smaller and more resilient to telescope errors than traditional coronagraph designs.

This talk will discuss the design and experimental results from the first prototype of the AstroPIC coronagraph at NASA Ames Research Center, which has recently demonstrated record-breaking on-chip contrast ratios of over 90 dB. 

About the Presenter: Dr. Rachel Morgan is an Optical Scientist at NASA Ames Research Center/SETI Institute. She works with the Exoplanet Technology Group on applying integrated photonics technology to astronomy instruments. She holds a PhD in Aerospace Engineering from MIT (2023) where she researched small satellite optical payloads and integrated photonics device design. Outside of research, she enjoys playing the saxophone and maintaining a very long Duolingo streak!

A Sci-Fi September Event

This event is generously sponsored by the Friends of the Mountain View Library