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    "story_id": "mp-2026-07-19-012",
    "source_story_id": "tmp-story-peepss-photonic-exoplanet-sensor",
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    "headline": "A Photonic Lantern Separates the Star From the World",
    "slug": "a-photonic-lantern-separates-the-star-from-the-world",
    "dek": "UCF's PEEPSS project aims to recover phase information that conventional exoplanet imaging usually discards.",
    "summary": "UCF's PEEPSS project aims to recover phase information that conventional exoplanet imaging usually discards.",
    "body_text": "A NASA-funded University of Central Florida team is developing photonic lanterns that split incoming starlight into separate optical channels, preserving brightness and phase information for wavefront correction. The three-year PEEPSS effort targets the extreme contrast needed to image Earth-like planets for a future Habitable Worlds Observatory; some related components have reached telescope tests in Hawaii. It is a prototype program, not a completed space instrument or a detection of life.",
    "why_it_matters": "UCF's PEEPSS project aims to recover phase information that conventional exoplanet imaging usually discards.",
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      "It is a prototype program, not a completed space instrument or a detection of life."
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    "first_published_at": "2026-07-19T09:00:00.000-04:00",
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        "text": "UCF's PEEPSS project aims to recover phase information that conventional exoplanet imaging usually discards.",
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        "qualification": "It is a prototype program, not a completed space instrument or a detection of life."
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    "tags": [
      "exoplanets",
      "photonics",
      "Habitable Worlds Observatory"
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    {
      "source_id": "source-2026-07-19-012",
      "title": "University of Central Florida: PEEPSS exoplanet imaging",
      "publisher": "University of Central Florida",
      "url": "https://www.ucf.edu/news/ucf-researchers-advance-tech-that-could-help-scientists-detect-habitable-worlds-beyond-our-solar-system/",
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      "accessed_at": "2026-07-19T08:27:22.202-04:00",
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  "cite_this_report": {
    "title": "A Photonic Lantern Separates the Star From the World",
    "publisher": "The Machine Press",
    "published_at": "2026-07-19T09:00:00.000-04:00",
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