ZIMPOL/CHEOPS (Zurich Imaging Polarimeter) is a polarimetric imager being developed for the Very Large Telescope for the direct detection of extra-solar planets.[1] The imager is operated by the European Southern Observatory on Cerro Paranal in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile.[1][2]
It is also the imaging polarimeter subsystem of the VLT-SPHERE instrument.[3]
The Zurich Imaging Polarimeter (ZIMPOL) provides diffraction limited classical imaging and differential polarimetric imaging (DPI) at 15 mas (milliarcsecond) resolution in the visible spectrum[4] and is one of three scientific subsystem integrated into the VLT-SPHERE instrument used at VLT's Unit Telescope 3, Melipal.
CHEOPS is an acronym for CHaracterizing Exo-planets by Opto-infrared Polarimetry and Spectroscopy.[5]