Ground-based Optical Interferometry to Characterize Exoplanets

Dual-field interferometry, enabled by the GRAVITY instrument at the Very Large Telescope Interferometer, achieves very high contrast at very small separations. It has directly detected exoplanets, such as Beta Pictoris b, which are beyond the reach of other instruments. This presentation will provide a brief history of the technique, discuss recent advancements leveraging Gaia astrometry, and explore future prospects in light of upcoming Gaia data releases, the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), and future space missions.