A nulling wide field imager for exoplanets detection and general astrophysics

We present a solution to obtain a high-resolution image of a wide field with the central source removed by destructive interference. The wide-field image is created by aperture synthesis with a rotating sparse array of telescopes in space. Nulling of the central source is achieved using a phase-mask coronagraph. The full plane coverage delivered by the 60 m, six telescope array is particularly well-suited for the detection and characterization of exoplanets in the infrared (DARWIN and Terrestrial Planet Finder (TPF) missions) as well as for other generic science observations. Detection () of an Earth-like planet is achieved in 10 hours with a m bandwidth at m.