High precision astrometry mission for the detection and characterization of nearby habitable planetary systems with the Nearby Earth Astrometric Telescope (NEAT)
Artikel i vetenskaplig tidskrift, 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
Författare
F. Malbet
Université Grenoble Alpes
A. Leger
Université 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
Universiteit Leiden
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
Université Grenoble Alpes
B. Jakobsson
Swedish Space Corporation (SSC)
E. Hinglais
Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES)
L. Kaltenegger
Max-Planck-Gesellschaft
L. Labadie
Universität zu Köln
A. M. Lagrange
Université Grenoble Alpes
J. Laskar
IMCCE - Institut de Mecanique Celeste et de Calcul des Ephemerides
René Liseau
Chalmers, Rymd- och geovetenskap, Radioastronomi och astrofysik
J. Lunine
Universita degli Studi di Roma Tor Vergata
J. Maldonado
Universidad Autonoma de Madrid (UAM)
M. Mercier
Thales Group
C. Mordasini
Max-Planck-Gesellschaft
D. Queloz
Université de Genève
A. Quirrenbach
Landessternwarte Heidelberg-Königstuhl
A. Sozzetti
Osservatorio Astronomico di Torino
W. Traub
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology
O. Absil
Universite de Liège
Y. Alibert
Universität 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
Université Grenoble Alpes
C. S. Cockell
Open University
G. Duvert
Université Grenoble Alpes
T. Forveille
Université Grenoble Alpes
P. J. V. Garcia
Universidade do Porto
D. Hobbs
Lunds universitet
A. Krone-Martins
Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Bordeaux
Universidade Cidade de Sao Paulo
H. Lammer
Institut fur Weltraumforschung
N. Meunier
Université Grenoble Alpes
S. Minardi
Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena
A. M. de Almeida
Universidade de Lisboa
N. Rambaux
IMCCE - Institut de Mecanique Celeste et de Calcul des Ephemerides
S. Raymond
Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Bordeaux
H. Rottgering
Universiteit Leiden
J. Sahlmann
Université de Genève
P. A. Schuller
Université Pierre et Marie Curie (UPMC)
D. Segransan
Université de Genève
F. Selsis
Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Bordeaux
J. Surdej
Universite de Liège
E. Villaver
Universidad Autonoma de Madrid (UAM)
G. J. White
STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
Open University
H. Zinnecker
Universität Stuttgart
NASA Ames Research Center
Experimental Astronomy
0922-6435 (ISSN) 1572-9508 (eISSN)
Vol. 34 2 385-413Ämneskategorier
Astronomi, astrofysik och kosmologi
DOI
10.1007/s10686-011-9246-1