Imaging is therefore a crucial component of exoplanet detection and characterization. With spectroscopy it is possible to probe the atmospheric and, potentially, surface composition of exoplanets and to validate models of planet formation and evolution. More importantly, it enables spectroscopic characterization of exoplanets, often at spectral resolutions significantly exceeding those possible with any other detection method. Imaging allows for planetary detection with just one observation and confirmation with a few observations taken only months apart. The vast majority were discovered by sifting years of observations of thousands of stars for periodic changes in the stars’ colors or fluxes, which indicate an orbiting planet. Of the nearly 2,000 planets confirmed to exist outside the solar system, only a handful were detected directly rather than inferred from their interaction with the stars they orbit. Starlight Suppression: Technologies for Direct Imaging of Exoplanets
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