Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
May 2010
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010aas...21631104c&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #216, #311.04; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 41, p.886
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
The holy grail of exoplanet searches is an Earth mass planet orbiting in the habitable zone around a nearby star. A single image of a planet, however, does not provide evidence that it is Earth mass or that it orbits in the habitable zone. The measurement of an orbit by direct imaging is complicated by a number of factors. One is the inner working angle (IWA). A space coronagraph or interferometer imaging an exo-Earth can separate the light from the planet from the starlight only when the star-planet separation exceeds the IWA. Secondly, a planet's apparent brightness and color depend on the phase angle. Thirdly, confusion that may arise from the presence of multiple planets. With two images of a multiple planet system, it is impossible to assign a dot to a planet based only on the photometry and color of the planet. Finally, the planet-star contrast must exceed a certain minimum value in order for the planet to be detected. The planet may be unobservable even when it is outside the IWA, as when the bright side of the planet faces away from us in a `crescent’ phase.
For a coronagraphic mission, the detection of a planet and measurement of its orbit requires a moderately large number of images, compromising the ability of some types of coronagraphs from searching a large number of stars for exo-Earths.
We examine the effect of confusion on imaging surveys. We investigate the synergy between astrometry and imaging, and we conclude that this synergy offers the most efficient and realistic road to detect and characterize exo-Earths in habitable zone around nearby stars.
The research described in this paper was carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
Catanzarite Joseph
Pan Xiaochuan
Shao Maxine
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