Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Dec 2006
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006aas...20924102t&link_type=abstract
2007 AAS/AAPT Joint Meeting, American Astronomical Society Meeting 209, #241.02; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society,
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
SIM PlanetQuest will be an essential tool in determining the population and diversity of terrestrial planets in the habitable zone of nearby stars. It is a space-borne Michelson interferometer with a nine meter baseline that will survey 240 stars within 30 parsecs for terrestrial mass planets. Ultra-precise astrometric observations will reveal the gravitational wobble of the target star (due to a planetary companion) against an inertial frame of reference stars located within a 1.5 degree radius. Here, I report the results of multiple Monte Carlo simulations which predict SIM's ability to detect and determine the orbital parameters and masses of the terrestrial mass planets around a sample of 250 proposed SIM target stars. If each target star has a terrestrial mass planet orbiting in its mid-habitable zone, for sample of the best 240, 120 and 60 targets, SIM will discover 91, 74 and 50 terrestrial planets with mean masses of 6.0, 5.0 and 4.2 Mearth, respectively. Of those stars detected, 10, 18 and 21 of them will have masses below 3 Mearth. I will discuss the implications of what we will learn from SIM for both planet formation and future missions.
Catanzarite Joe
Shao Maxine
Tanner Angelle M.
Unwin Stephen
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