Mathematics – Logic
Scientific paper
Dec 2007
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2007aas...211.0201k&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #211, #02.01; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 39, p.723
Mathematics
Logic
Scientific paper
Over 250 planets have now been found around other stars, most of them by the ground-based radial velocity (RV) method. Of these, most are presumed to be gas giant planets, none of which are likely to be habitable because they lack a solid surface. A few "super-Earths” have been identified, notably Gliese 581c and `d', both of which appear to lie just outside the boundaries of the conventional liquid water habitable zone of their parent star. These planets could be discovered by RV because they orbit an M star with a mass of only 0.3 Msun.
Within the next 5 years, it is likely that ground-based RV will detect other Earth-mass or slightly larger planets around M stars. Some of these are likely to lie within the habitable zone. If the numbers are large enough, then a few of them may transit their parent star, and their atmospheres may be studied spectroscopically using space-based telescopes such as Spitzer and JWST.
To look for Earth-sized planets around F, G, and K stars, additional space missions will be required. A space-based astrometry mission could locate Earth-sized planets around nearby Sun-like stars and determine their orbital parameters and masses. The most exciting information, though, will come when we are able to build large, space-based telescopes that operate either in the visible/near-IR (like NASA's proposed TPF-C mission) or in the thermal-IR (like TPF-I or Darwin). Visible telescopes appear at the moment to be the logical first step, and some combination of coronagraphy/occulters may provide a mechanism for dealing with the high contrast ratio between a planet and its parent star. If these technical issues can be addressed successfully, such a mission should be able to find other Earths, if they exist, and perhaps even find evidence for life.
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