The NEW EARTH lab is the only high-contrast imaging laboratory in Canada
The quest for habitable worlds outside of our solar system is not just the stuff of science fiction. The study of exoplanets—planets that orbit stars other than the Sun—is one of astronomy's great frontiers. The National Research Council of Canada (NRC) has been behind some of the field's most important discoveries.
In 2008, the NRC's Dr. Christian Marois was part of the team that was the first to directly image 3 exoplanets orbiting the star HR 8799, a world-first discovery that placed Canada among the global leaders in exoplanet astronomy and changed how scientists study worlds beyond our solar system.
Dr. Christian Marois in the NEW EARTH Laboratory in Victoria, B.C.
NEW EARTH Lab
Today, Dr. Marois leads the NEW EARTH lab at the NRC's Herzberg Astronomy and Astrophysics Research Centre. Short for the NRC's Extreme Wavefront control for Exoplanet and Adaptive optics Research Topics, the lab develops high-contrast exoplanet imaging instruments and is the only facility of its kind in Canada.
"The exoplanet field is extremely competitive, with discoveries driven by new ideas and cutting-edge technologies," says Dr. Marois. "The NRC is an international leader in adaptive optics, contributing technology to some of the world's leading telescopes."
Taking the twinkle out of starlight
The SPIDERS team gathered around the instrument in the NRC's Integration Facility at the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory in Victoria, B.C.
Capturing a clear image of a distant planet from a telescope on the ground starts with taming Earth's turbulent atmosphere. Shifts in temperature, wind and pressure distort starlight as it travels through the atmosphere, creating blurry or shimmering images—like the waves on the horizon above a hot road.
Even after correcting for this blurring, some residual distortions remain. Astronomers call this speckle noise.
"This is one of the biggest challenges in exoplanet imaging," says Dr. William Thompson, the Herzberg Astronomy and Astrophysics Research Centre's Plaskett Fellow. "Speckles can overwhelm the faint light of most exoplanets, or even mimic a planet's signal, making them harder to detect and image."
At the NRC's NEW EARTH lab, founded by Dr. Marois, scientists and engineers are pushing the limits of adaptive optics—the technology that measures and corrects speckle noise. They are building the next generation of instruments that will soon make it possible for astronomers to study to study exoplanets in unprecedented detail, from giant gas worlds to potentially habitable Earth-like planets.
SPIDERS
Dr. Adam Johnson preparing SPIDERS to be installed at the SUBARU Telescope.
One of the first projects to emerge from the NEW EARTH Lab is SPIDERS. Short for the Subaru Pathfinder Instrument for Detecting Exoplanets and Retrieving Spectra, SPIDERS is a test-bed instrument designed to validate new imaging technologies developed in the lab.
"SPIDERS is advancing innovative ways to separate and distinguish starlight from the much fainter light of nearby planets," says Dr. Thompson. "For a time, it may be the most advanced exoplanet imager in the world."
In December 2025, the team tested SPIDERS on-sky at the Subaru Telescope—moving from the lab to a real-world setting.
"We shipped SPIDERS fully assembled from Canada to Hawai'i. The instrument fit into place as planned, powered up smoothly, and ran stably on real stars despite poor observing conditions, delivering real-time correction as designed," says Dr. Adam Johnson, mechanical engineering lead for SPIDERS and an NRC post-doctoral fellow. "This first demonstration marked a major milestone for our team."
The team will have another opportunity to do more on-sky testing for SPIDERS in May and June 2026.
CAL2: Gemini Planet Imager upgrade
SPIDERS is a bridge between a lab demonstrator and a full facility-class instrument, laying the foundation for the technology that will eventually become part of a permanent observatory instrument. The team is applying the Fast Atmospheric Self coherent camera Technique (FAST), developed on SPIDERS, to upgrade the Gemini Planet Imager (GPI) calibration unit, a project called CAL2.
"For the first time, CAL2 will measure and correct stellar speckles in milliseconds rather than minutes," says Dr. Olivier Lardière, an optical engineer and NRC research officer, working on the project. "This will make GPI up to 100 times more sensitive, opening the door to new discoveries in exoplanet science and other areas of astronomy."
Since 2014, NRC contributions to GPI have helped drive major discoveries. Installed on the Gemini South Telescope in Chile, GPI and its original calibration unit were built with significant contributions from the NRC. GPI has enabled groundbreaking discoveries in exoplanet imaging and beyond.
In addition to CAL2, the NRC is supporting a full upgrade of GPI. Once CAL2 is complete, the new system—known as GPI2—will be moved and re-installed on the Gemini North Telescope in Hawai'i in fall 2026.
Once installed, GPI2 will be among the most advanced exoplanet imagers in the world.
The search for habitable worlds
The breakthroughs from the NEW EARTH Lab, SPIDERS and CAL2 are doing more than sharpening our view of distant worlds. They are building the tools needed for future space missions to search for life beyond our solar system.
The same high‑contrast imaging and adaptive optics technologies being used by SPIDERS and CAL2 could one day fly aboard NASA's Habitable Worlds Observatory—a next‑generation space telescope designed to find and study Earth‑like exoplanets for signs of life.
"The techniques we're advancing at the NEW EARTH lab will help ensure Canada is ready to play a leading role in this flagship mission," says Dr. Marois who represents the Canadian Space Agency on the Habitable Worlds Observatory team. "Our techniques could one day help us answer one of humanity's oldest questions: are we alone?"