JWST/NIRCam Coronagraphy: Commissioning and First On-Sky Results
Authors: Julien H. Girard, Jarron Leisenring, Jens Kammerer, Mario Gennaro, Marcia Rieke, John Stansberry, Armin Rest, Eiichi Egami, Ben Sunnquist, Martha Boyer, Alicia Canipe, Matteo Correnti, Bryan Hilbert, Marshall D. Perrin, Laurent Pueyo, Remi Soummer, Marsha Allen, Howard Bushouse, Jonathan Aguilar, Brian Brooks, Dan Coe, Audrey DiFelice, David Golimowski, George Hartig, Dean Hines, Anton Koekemoer, Bryony Nickson, Nikolay Nikolov, Vera Platais, Nor Pirzkal, Massimo Robberto, Anand Sivaramakrishnan, Sangmo Tony Sohn, Randal Telfer, Chi Ray Wu, Thomas Beatty, Michael Florian, Kevin Hainline, Doug Kelly, Karl Misselt, Everett Schlawin, Fengwu Sun, Christina Williams, Christopher Willmer, Christopher Stark, Marie Ygouf, Aarynn Carter, Charles Beichman, Thomas P. Greene, Thomas Roellig, John Krist, Jéa Adams Redai, Jason Wang, Charles R. Clark, Dan Lewis, Malcolm Ferry
Abstract: In a cold and stable space environment, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST or "Webb") reaches unprecedented sensitivities at wavelengths beyond 2 microns, serving most fields of astrophysics. It also extends the parameter space of high-contrast imaging in the near and mid-infrared. Launched in late 2021, JWST underwent a six month commissioning period. In this contribution we focus on the NIRCam Coronagraphy mode which was declared "science ready" on July 10 2022, the last of the 17 JWST observing modes. Essentially, this mode will allow to detect fainter/redder/colder (less massive for a given age) self-luminous exoplanets as well as other faint astrophysical signal in the vicinity of any bright object (stars or galaxies). Here we describe some of the steps and hurdles the commissioning team went through to achieve excellent performances. Specifically, we focus on the Coronagraphic Suppression Verification activity. We were able to produce firm detections at 3.35$\mu$m of the white dwarf companion HD 114174 B which is at a separation of $\simeq$ 0.5" and a contrast of $\simeq$ 10 magnitudes ($10^{4}$ fainter than the K$\sim$5.3 host star). We compare these first on-sky images with our latest, most informed and realistic end-to-end simulations through the same pipeline. Additionally we provide information on how we succeeded with the target acquisition with all five NIRCam focal plane masks and their four corresponding wedged Lyot stops.
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