| The recent detection of planets around other stars has sparked widespread interest in the detection and study of extrasolar planets. So far, no extrasolar planet has been detected except by indirect methods. Direct imaging, and ultimately spectroscopy, of planets around other stars will be a major goal of astronomy over the next century. Adaptive optics offers potentially large gains towards these goals, by allowing diffraction limited imaging with large, ground based telescopes. This thesis addresses the application of adaptive optics on large ground based telescopes to the problem of high contrast imaging. An adaptive optics survey, primarily with the Lick adaptive optics system, of 78 solar type stars studied with the precision radial velocity technique is presented in Part l. This survey covers a field within ≳ 10&inches; radius, with ∼ 0''.15 resolution, typically reaching sensitivity of Delta K = 5 mag at 1&inches;, and DeltaK > 10 mag at > 5&inches;. 26 companions with confirmed, or highly likely physical association are presented, including 5 M dwarf companions to known planet bearing stars, and a resolved image of the lM dwarf companion to the recently retracted radial velocity planet, HD 223084. Four background objects in the field of planet bearing stars are presented, as are 21 objects with insufficient proper motion to determine physical association within the temporal baseline of these observations. Part II examines the opportunities and limitations of the application of adaptive optics, coronagraphy and interferometry to future study of extrasolar planets. |
