The Far Future of Exoplanet Direct Characterization
Journal article, 2010

We describe future steps in the direct characterization of habitable exoplanets subsequent to medium and large mission projects currently underway and investigate the benefits of spectroscopic and direct imaging approaches. We show that, after third- and fourth-generation missions have been conducted over the course of the next 100 years, a significant amount of time will lapse before we will have the capability to observe directly the morphology of extrasolar organisms.

signatures

Exo-moons

Surface features

Direct imaging

Habitable exoplanets

High-resolution spectroscopy

Far future missions

extra-solar planets

search

imager

Author

J. Schneider

Observatoire de Paris-Meudon

A. Leger

University of Paris-Sud

M. Fridlund

European Space Agency (ESA)

G. J. White

Open University

STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory

C. Eiroa

Universidad Autonoma de Madrid (UAM)

T. Henning

Max Planck Society

T. Herbst

Max Planck Society

H. Lammer

Institut fur Weltraumforschung

René Liseau

Chalmers, Department of Radio and Space Science, Radio Astronomy and Astrophysics

F. Paresce

Istituto nazionale di astrofisica (INAF)

A. Penny

STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory

Royal Observatory

A. Quirrenbach

Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory

H. Rottgering

Leiden University

F. Selsis

University of Bordeaux

C. Beichman

California Institute of Technology (Caltech)

W. Danchi

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

L. Kaltenegger

Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics

J. Lunine

University of Arizona

D. Stam

Netherlands Institute for Space Research (SRON)

G. Tinetti

University College London (UCL)

Astrobiology

1531-1074 (ISSN)

Vol. 10 1 121-126

Subject Categories (SSIF 2011)

Astronomy, Astrophysics and Cosmology

Roots

Basic sciences

DOI

10.1089/ast.2009.0371

More information

Latest update

4/23/2025