Paper 14145-32
Paper 14145-32
The Roman Coronagraph Community Participation Program: pre-launch reference star list and impact of reference star properties on post-processing performance
6 July 2026 • 15:50 - 16:10 CEST | Room B4-M3
Abstract
The upcoming Roman Coronagraph aims to directly image and characterize exoplanetary systems at contrasts higher than 10^-7, a key technological milestone for Habitable Worlds Observatory coronagraph development. Doing so requires alternating observations of science targets and bright reference stars. These reference stars must satisfy strict criteria, including being single star systems. Other reference star attributes may have other impacts on post-processing performance on a case-by-case basis. Only a small number of the brightest stars in the sky are potentially suitable, necessitating precursor observations and simulations to validate their use. We will present the pre-launch list of Roman Coronagraph reference stars informed from an extensive observing campaign. We will also present the results of simulations investigating the impact of reference star properties on post-processing performance. We discuss the importance of reference star selection for scheduling and performance.
Presenter
The University of Arizona (United States)
Justin Hom is a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Arizona, with extensive experience in high-contrast imaging observation, data reduction, and analysis. He has participated in nearly 1000 hours of ground-based observing programs, and is the lead of the Precursor Observations Working Group for the Roman Coronagraph Community Participation Program.