ZIMPOL/CHEOPS

ZIMPOL/CHEOPS (Zurich Imaging Polarimeter) is a polarimetric imager being developed for the Very Large Telescope for the direct detection of extra-solar planets.^[1] The imager is operated by the European Southern Observatory on Cerro Paranal in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile.^[1][2]

The Very Large Telescope (VLT)

Not to be confused with CHEOPS (spacecraft).

It is also the imaging polarimeter subsystem of the VLT-SPHERE instrument.^[3]

The Zurich Imaging Polarimeter (ZIMPOL) provides diffraction limited classical imaging and differential polarimetric imaging (DPI) at 15 mas (milliarcsecond) resolution in the visible spectrum^[4] and is one of three scientific subsystem integrated into the VLT-SPHERE instrument used at VLT's Unit Telescope 3, Melipal.

CHEOPS is an acronym for CHaracterizing Exo-planets by Opto-infrared Polarimetry and Spectroscopy.^[5]

See also

• CHEOPS (spacecraft)
• Spectro-Polarimetric High-Contrast Exoplanet Research—(VLT-SPHERE)