2025/10/14 by Manon Lizzana, Lizzana, Manon, F. Malbet +17
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Adaptive optics and wavefront sensing #Calibration and Measurement Techniques #Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP) #FOS: Physical sciences #Inertial Sensor and Navigation #Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM)
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2510.12270
openalex publication_date 2025/10/14 · openalex created_date 2025/10/17 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Many different scientific applications require sub-micro arcsecond precision astrometry, including researching rocky exoplanets in the vicinity of the Sun and studying dark matter. The Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) is a promising candidate to carry an astrometric instrument because it provides a stable, space-based telescope with a large aperture, which allows faint sources and small displacements to be observed. This paper presents the characterization of an appropriate detector for an astrometric instrument: the 46Mpx Gigapyx from Pyxalis. Moreover it explains the implementation of a testbed enabling interferometric characterization of pixel positions. Finally, the paper introduces a method for calibrating the telescope's optical distortion. This method was implemented in simulation and tested thanks to an optical bench developed at IPAG in France.