Prospecting For Habitable SuperEarth Exoplanets With The MEarth Observatory

Details Prospecting For Habitable SuperEarth Exoplanets With The MEarth Observatory Prospecting For Habitable SuperEarth Exoplanets With The MEarth Observatory

Sep 2008

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008dps....40.1112c&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #40, #11.12; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 40, p.403

Physics

Scientific paper

When exoplanets are observed to transit their parent stars, we are granted direct estimates of their masses and radii, and we can undertake studies of their atmospheres. As a result, such systems have profoundly impacted our understanding of the physics of exoplanets, yet to date only large exoplanets (akin to Jupiter or Neptune) are known to transit their parent stars. By targeting nearby M-dwarf stars, a transit search using modest equipment is capable of discovering planets as small as 2 Earth radii in the habitable zones of their host stars. The discovery of such planets is important for two reasons: First, they provide fundamental constraints on the physical structure of planets that are primarily rock and ice in composition. Second, by differencing spectra gathered when the planet is in view from those when it is occulted by the star, we can study the atmospheric chemistry of potentially habitable worlds. The MEarth Project will consist of 8 identical, automated 16-inch telescopes in a single enclosure at Mt Hopkins, AZ. Five of these telescopes are currently in operation. We will describe the target sample, survey design, and the current photometric precision, with the goal of demonstrating the feasibility of the ground-based detection of habitable exoplanets. We acknowledge funding from the National Science Froundation and the David and Lucile Packard Fellowship for Science and Engineering.

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