High precision astrometry mission for the detection and characterization of nearby habitable planetary systems with the Nearby Earth Astrometric Telescope (NEAT)
Journal article, 2012
A complete census of planetary systems around a volume-limited sample of solar-type stars (FGK dwarfs) in the Solar neighborhood (d a parts per thousand currency signaEuro parts per thousand 15 pc) with uniform sensitivity down to Earth-mass planets within their Habitable Zones out to several AUs would be a major milestone in extrasolar planets astrophysics. This fundamental goal can be achieved with a mission concept such as NEAT-the Nearby Earth Astrometric Telescope. NEAT is designed to carry out space-borne extremely-high-precision astrometric measurements at the 0.05 mu as (1 sigma) accuracy level, sufficient to detect dynamical effects due to orbiting planets of mass even lower than Earth's around the nearest stars. Such a survey mission would provide the actual planetary masses and the full orbital geometry for all the components of the detected planetary systems down to the Earth-mass limit. The NEAT performance limits can be achieved by carrying out differential astrometry between the targets and a set of suitable reference stars in the field. The NEAT instrument design consists of an off-axis parabola single-mirror telescope (D = 1 m), a detector with a large field of view located 40 m away from the telescope and made of 8 small movable CCDs located around a fixed central CCD, and an interferometric calibration system monitoring dynamical Young's fringes originating from metrology fibers located at the primary mirror. The mission profile is driven by the fact that the two main modules of the payload, the telescope and the focal plane, must be located 40 m away leading to the choice of a formation flying option as the reference mission, and of a deployable boom option as an alternative choice. The proposed mission architecture relies on the use of two satellites, of about 700 kg each, operating at L2 for 5 years, flying in formation and offering a capability of more than 20,000 reconfigurations. The two satellites will be launched in a stacked configuration using a Soyuz ST launch vehicle. The NEAT primary science program will encompass an astrometric survey of our 200 closest F-, G- and K-type stellar neighbors, with an average of 50 visits each distributed over the nominal mission duration. The main survey operation will use approximately 70% of the mission lifetime. The remaining 30% of NEAT observing time might be allocated, for example, to improve the characterization of the architecture of selected planetary systems around nearby targets of specific interest (low-mass stars, young stars, etc.) discovered by Gaia, ground-based high-precision radial-velocity surveys, and other programs. With its exquisite, surgical astrometric precision, NEAT holds the promise to provide the first thorough census for Earth-mass planets around stars in the immediate vicinity of our Sun.
Exoplanets
jitter
Astrometry
Space Mission
Planetary systems
Planetary formation
Author
F. Malbet
Grenoble Alpes University
A. Leger
University of Paris-Sud
M. Shao
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology
R. Goullioud
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology
P. O. Lagage
Astrophysique, Instrumentation et Modelisation de Paris-Saclay
A. G. A. Brown
Leiden University
C. Cara
Astrophysique, Instrumentation et Modelisation de Paris-Saclay
G. Durand
Astrophysique, Instrumentation et Modelisation de Paris-Saclay
C. Eiroa
Universidad Autonoma de Madrid (UAM)
P. Feautrier
Grenoble Alpes University
B. Jakobsson
Swedish Space Corporation (SSC)
E. Hinglais
Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES)
L. Kaltenegger
Max Planck Society
L. Labadie
University of Cologne
A. M. Lagrange
Grenoble Alpes University
J. Laskar
IMCCE - Institut de Mecanique Celeste et de Calcul des Ephemerides
René Liseau
Chalmers, Earth and Space Sciences, Radio Astronomy and Astrophysics
J. Lunine
University of Rome Tor Vergata
J. Maldonado
Universidad Autonoma de Madrid (UAM)
M. Mercier
Thales Group
C. Mordasini
Max Planck Society
D. Queloz
University of Geneva
A. Quirrenbach
Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory
A. Sozzetti
Osservatorio Astronomico di Torino
W. Traub
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology
O. Absil
University of Liège
Y. Alibert
University of Bern
Observatoire de Besancon
A. H. Andrei
Observatorio Nacional
Osservatorio Astronomico di Torino
F. Arenou
Observatoire de Paris-Meudon
C. Beichman
California Institute of Technology (Caltech)
A. Chelli
Grenoble Alpes University
C. S. Cockell
Open University
G. Duvert
Grenoble Alpes University
T. Forveille
Grenoble Alpes University
P. J. V. Garcia
University of Porto
D. Hobbs
Lund University
A. Krone-Martins
Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Bordeaux
Universidade Cidade de Sao Paulo
H. Lammer
Institut fur Weltraumforschung
N. Meunier
Grenoble Alpes University
S. Minardi
Friedrich Schiller University Jena
A. M. de Almeida
University of Lisbon
N. Rambaux
IMCCE - Institut de Mecanique Celeste et de Calcul des Ephemerides
S. Raymond
Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Bordeaux
H. Rottgering
Leiden University
J. Sahlmann
University of Geneva
P. A. Schuller
Pierre and Marie Curie University (UPMC)
D. Segransan
University of Geneva
F. Selsis
Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Bordeaux
J. Surdej
University of Liège
E. Villaver
Universidad Autonoma de Madrid (UAM)
G. J. White
STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
Open University
H. Zinnecker
University of Stuttgart
NASA Ames Research Center
Experimental Astronomy
0922-6435 (ISSN) 1572-9508 (eISSN)
Vol. 34 2 385-413Subject Categories
Astronomy, Astrophysics and Cosmology
DOI
10.1007/s10686-011-9246-1