Maximizing The Sensitivity Of ELT To Habitable Worlds With A Space-based Starshade

The ELT will provide groundbreaking science across a wide range of areas, including small habitable-zone exoplanets; however, true Earth analogs in the habitable zones of Sun-like stars are generally beyond the reach even of the ELT, due to the extreme contrast ratio and small angular separation between the planet and star.

Here, we note that the combination of ELT and a space-based starshade would provide the contrast needed to observe potentially tens of Earth analogs, as well as other planets. This would yield the scientific basis needed for addressing central scientific questions regarding the frequency and distribution of habitability and life in the Universe.

The huge aperture of ELT, combined with a contrast otherwise only reachable in space, opens up scientific avenues that are unmatched by any other existing or foreseen facility. ESO could conceivably collaborate with ESA (and others) to facilitate a starshade mission suitable for synergy with the ELT, as well as to prepare the ELT instrumentation in order to maximize its potential for synergy with a starshade.

Markus Janson, Enric Palle, Thomas Henning, Sascha Quanz, Lars Buchhave, Alexis Brandeker

Comments: White Paper – ESO 2040 Expanding Horizons, 3 pages + references, no figures
Subjects: Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM); Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP)
Cite as: arXiv:2512.16361 [astro-ph.IM] (or arXiv:2512.16361v1 [astro-ph.IM] for this version)
https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2512.16361
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Submission history
From: Markus Janson
[v1] Thu, 18 Dec 2025 09:55:39 UTC (150 KB)
https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.16361

Astrobiology, Exoplanet, Astronomy,