Other
Scientific paper
Jan 2012
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2012aas...21913601k&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #219, #136.01
Other
Scientific paper
Astronomers have now found over 500 exoplanets from radial velocity measurements and another 1200 or more "planet candidates” using the transit method from Kepler. Some of these planets are small enough to be rocky, like Earth, and orbit within the liquid water habitable zone of their parent star. We know next to nothing about conditions on these planets, though, because we have not yet developed the tools needed to study them. Even JWST, if it flies, will likely be unable to characterize the atmosphere of an Earth-analogue exoplanet. What we need for this task is a direct imaging mission that combines a large optical/near-IR telescope with a device that can block out the light from the star and retain the light from a nearby exoplanet. Both internal coronagraphs and external occulters (starshades) are being studied for this purpose. In principle, a thermal-IR telescope operating as an interferometer could accomplish the same task, but this would require formation flying of multiple cooled telescopes and is thought to be a more expensive option. The size of the optical telescope that would be needed to find and characterize an Earth depends on the frequency of Earth-like planet, Earth, and the brightness of the average exozodiacal background. The first parameter will hopefully be determined by Kepler, and the second may be measured by the Large Binary Telescope Interferometer, LBTI. Once this information is in hand, and if sufficient money can be found--currently, a big `if'--there should be little reason to hold back on designing and launching such a Terrestrial Planet Finder telescope.
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