…and the addition of one of the most sensitive coronagraphs ever made… I find it interesting that one of the major improvements in this light gathering instrum

…and the addition of one of the most sensitive coronagraphs ever made… I find it interesting that one of the major improvements in this light gathering instrument is a device to physically block light from getting into the instrument. For Earthlings viewing the Sun a chronograph is a disk on a stick to block the Sun's surface so you can see the corona. In a space based telescope blocking out a star but not any planets which might be orbiting it becomes complicated. They have intricate computer generated masks designed to block the starlight and the interference patterns created by the edge of the primary mask implemented as mirrors on black silicon. I wasn't able to find a published paper on the design, there are several available as abstracts but not viewable by me. This presentation from Caltech covers a lot of it and is probably accessible to people in the field. http://kiss.caltech.edu/special_events/JPL_MPIA/presentations/2_Trauger.pdf http://kiss.caltech.edu/special_events/JPL_MPIA/presentation... My takeaway was that compared to the Hubble, they should be able to block 100 times more starlight relative to the planets and should be able to directly see planets illuminated by their star.