Gemini Planet Imager
The Gemini Planet Imager (GPI) is an ambitious project involving seven institutions around North America. It comprises a set of instrumentation very similar to that used in Project 1640, but it is based in the southern hemisphere at the International Gemini Observatory's 8-m telescope.
Due to begin collecting data in late 2013, GPI will be the premier instrument for exoplanetary science, complementing the capabilities of Project 1640 in the northern hemisphere. Scientists at AMNH, led by curator Rebecca Oppenheimer, designed, developed and tested the starlight suppression system for this instrument in the AMNH optics laboratory. Oppenheimer and others at AMNH are also part of a long term survey of nearby stars to find and characterize nearby exosolar systems with the instrument.