NASA's Extra-solar Neighboring Planetary Systems (ExNPS) roadmap recommends
a decade of vigorous exploration from the ground during the design and
development of a space infrared nulling interferometer to detect and analyze
the spectra of earth-like planets around neighboring stars. An element of the
ground observational program will be discovering and analyzing nearby extra-solar
planetary systems through direct imaging of giant planets and the structure of
exo-zodiacal emission. To accomplish these goals will require pushing the
current capabilities for direct detection of faint sources to a new domain of
very high contrast and sensitivity, made possible only through the technology
of adaptive optics. Adaptive optics has been shown already to lead to dramatic
sharpening of ground-based images, by removing the effects of atmospheric
blurring through measurement and correction of the wavefront using a deformable
mirror. In this paper, we will discuss the potential of AO for discoveries
from the ground, and show that a new, more advanced form of adaptive optics on
large telescopes will allow direct imaging of Jupiter-like planets around nearby
stars. Detailed simulations of the new method show that a Jupiter twin at 10 pc
can be detected at 5 standard deviations above the residual halo noise in a
single night of observation. A decade-long program of potential discoveries
from the ground, using large telescopes and interferometry with adaptive optics,
will be outlined.
