Abstract

My team and I recently completed building an Integral Field Spectrograph (IFS) optimized for exoplanet direct imaging.  The instrument, dubbed the Arizona Lenslets for Exoplanet Spectroscopy (ALES), builds upon the successes of an earlier prototype instrument built in 2015. ALES is uniquely powerful for exoplanet direct imaging because it is the only IFS operating in the thermal-IR where cool exoplanets peak in brightness. By probing the peak of exoplanet SEDs ALES provides the best constraints on exoplanet luminosities while simultaneously covering the fundamental transitions of both CH4 and CO.  Consequently, ALES also provides the most sensitive probes of the physical processes sculpting exoplanet carbon chemistry. I will present preliminary science results with ALES including observations of both directly imaged companions and a candidate companion discovered within a protoplanetary disk.  I will also discuss combining ALES with dual-aperture imaging mode at the 23 m LBT to increase spatial resolution and sensitivity.