PLATO camera ghosts: simulations and measurements on the engineering model (EM)

Abstract

The PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations of stars mission (PLATO) is the M3 mission in ESA’s Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 Programme, see Rauer et al. (2014).1 The PLATO mission aims at detecting and characterizing extrasolar planetary systems, including terrestrial exoplanets around bright solar-type stars up to the habitable zone. To be able to perform the required high precision photometric monitoring of the large target stars sample, PLATO is based on a multi-telescope configuration consisting of 26 Cameras, so as to provide simultaneously a large field of view and a large collecting aperture. The optical design is identical for all cameras and consists of a 6-lens dioptric design with a 120 mm entrance pupil and an effective field of view of more than 1000 square degrees. As for every optical system, especially dioptric ones, the presence of optical ghosts can dramatically affect the scientific observations. Thanks to the application of an excellent anti-reflection coating, PLATO’s cameras are by design very insensitive to ghosts. However, the residual faint back reflections focused on the detectors have to be simulated and considered during science operation (target selection) and in data correction algorithms. This article describes the different optical analyses performed to estimate the importance of ghosts in PLATO’s cameras, as well as the simulations performed to support the preparation of the test campaign on the first PLATO camera: the engineering model. Finally, the test execution, data analysis and results are presented and compared to the simulated data.