SIM's Search for Planets Orbiting White Dwarfs

Details SIM's Search for Planets Orbiting White Dwarfs SIM's Search for Planets Orbiting White Dwarfs

Jan 2009

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009aas...21345502s&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #213, #455.02; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 41, p.354

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

Once launched, The Space Interferometry Mission (SIM) will be the most precise astrometric instrument ever developed. These capabilities are vital to exoplanetary studies, in particular, for low-mass, Earthlike planets. I propose to use SIM to observe a sample ( 25-50) of nearby white dwarfs in hopes of detecting planetary companions with masses in the 10 Earth mass range on average. Because of the nature of white dwarfs' spectral signatures (a few broad, if any, absorption lines), current radial velocity planet hunting techniques are not viable. Astrometry is currently the only technique capable of detecting low mass planets around white dwarfs and SIM would be the best suited astrometric instrument to do so. Planetary detections around white dwarfs would better enable us to probe planetary formation theory as well as planetary evolution theory in conjunction with stellar evolution. Because astrometric signatures are inversely related to distance, the closer the system, the larger the signature (all else being equal). Because most stars will eventually end their lives as white dwarfs, these objects are plentiful and on average, closer to the Sun than more rare objects. Thus, a number of white dwarfs are close enough to the Sun to permit low mass planetary signature detections. Given that white dwarfs are the remnants of main-sequence dwarfs with spectral classes from B to K (thus far), we could better understand planetary formation over a broader range of objects than those currently investigated using radial velocity techniques (F, G, and K stars primarily).

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