Starshade in formation flight with a space telescope is a rapidly maturing technology that would enable imaging and spectral characterization of small planets orbiting nearby stars in the not-too-distant future. While performance models of starshade-assisted exoplanet imaging have been developed and used to design future missions, their results have not been verified from the analyses of synthetic images. Following a rich history of using community data challenges to evaluate image-processing capabilities in astronomy and exoplanet fields, the Starshade Technology Development to TRL5 (S5), a focused technology development activity managed by the NASA Exoplanet Exploration Program, is organizing and implementing a starshade exoplanet data challenge. The purpose of the data challenge is to validate the flow down of requirements from science to key instrument performance parameters and to quantify the required accuracy of noisy background calibration with synthetic images. This data challenge distinguishes itself from past efforts in the exoplanet field in that (1) it focuses on the detection and spectral characterization of small planets in the habitable zones of nearby stars, and (2) it develops synthetic images that simultaneously include multiple background noise terms—some observations specific to starshade—including residual starlight, solar glint, exozodiacal light, detector noise, as well as variability resulting from starshade’s motion and telescope jitter. We provide an overview of the design and rationale of the data challenge. Working with data challenge participants, we expect to achieve improved understanding of the noise budget and background calibration in starshade-assisted exoplanet observations in the context of both starshade rendezvous with Roman and Habitable Exoplanet Observatory. This activity will thus help NASA prioritize further technology developments and prepare the science community for analyzing starshade exoplanet observations.

中文翻译：

---

Starshade系外行星数据挑战

使用太空望远镜在编队飞行中的星影是一项快速成熟的技术，它将使在不久的将来围绕附近恒星运行的小行星的成像和光谱表征成为可能。虽然已经开发了恒星辅助系外行星成像的性能模型并用于设计未来的任务，但其结果尚未得到合成图像分析的证实。在利用社区数据挑战来评估天文学和系外行星领域图像处理能力的悠久历史之后，由NASA系外行星探索计划管理的一项专注于技术开发活动的Starshade技术发展到TRL5（S5）正在组织和实施星状阴影系外行星数据挑战。数据挑战的目的是验证从科学到关键仪器性能参数的需求流，并量化带有合成图像的嘈杂背景校准所需的精度。这项数据挑战将其与以往在系外行星领域的努力区分开来：（1）着重于对附近恒星可居住区域中小行星的检测和光谱表征，（2）产生同时包含多个背景噪声的合成图像术语-一些特定于恒星的观测结果-包括残留的星光，太阳闪烁，地外星光，探测器噪声以及由恒星的运动和望远镜抖动引起的可变性。我们概述了数据挑战的设计和原理。与数据挑战参与者合作，我们希望在由罗马和可居住系外行星天文台会合的两个系恒星的背景下，对对系外行星观测的噪声预算和背景校准有更好的了解。因此，这项活动将帮助NASA优先考虑进一步的技术发展，并为科学界做好准备，以分析恒星系系外行星的观测结果。