Planet formation with all flavors of adaptive optics: VLT/MUSE’s laser tomography adaptive optics to directly image young accreting exoplanets

Abstract

We present recent results obtained with the VLT/MUSE Integral Field Spectrograph fed by the 4LGSF and its laser tomography adaptive optics module GALACSI. While this so-called narrow-field mode of MUSE was not designed to perform directly imaging of exoplanets and outflows, we show that it can be a game changer to detect and characterize young exoplanets with a prominent emission lines (i.e Ha, tracer of accretion), at moderate contrasts. These performances are achieved thanks to the combo of a near-diffraction limited PSF and a medium resolution spectrograph and a cross-correlation approach in post-processing. We discuss this in the context of ground and space, infrared and visible wavelengths, preparing for missions like JWST and WFIRST in great synergy and as pathfinder for future ELT/GSMT (Extremely Large and/or Giant Segmented Mirror Telescopes) instruments.