Prospects for Planet Detection with SIM

Details Prospects for Planet Detection with SIM Prospects for Planet Detection with SIM

Jul 2007

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2007dda....38.1313c&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DDA meeting #38, #13.13

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

SIM is an optical Michelson interferometer with a 9-meter baseline, with angular precision of 1 microarcsecond in a single measurement.
SIM's direct measurement of the stellar astrometric reflex motion due to a planetary companion permits accurate orbit determination, giving eccentricity and inclination, and most importantly, unambiguous measurement of the planet mass.
SIM is the only mission that is
* Sensitive to detection of planets across nearly the entire range of masses and orbit periods where terrestrial planets form and evolve.
* Capable of detecting and confirming rocky planets in the habitable zones of nearby solar-type stars
We present results of simulations quantifying SIM's planet detection sensitivity. We find that if each of the 64 most suitable target stars had an Earth-mass planet orbiting at the middle of its habitable zone, SIM would detect every one of them.
We estimate SIM's planet yield for reasonable assumptions about the occurrence frequency and mass and period distribution of planets orbiting solar-type stars. For a "broad survey" of 2100 Hipparcos stars within 30 pc, we find that SIM would detect over 400 planets, including over 80 in the terrestrial mass range.
By surveying thousands of stars comprising a broad range of stellar types, SIM will collect a large sample of planets down to the terrestrial mass range throughout the circumstellar domain where planets form and evolve. This will make possible the first detailed and comprehensive tests of planet formation theories.

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