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 $(u,v)$ 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 ($S/N=10$) of an Earth-like planet is achieved in 10 hours with a 1~μm bandwidth at 10~μm.