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Future of Exoplanet Detection

Astro 497, Week 13, Friday

Transits

TESS (extended missions ongoing)

  • Luanched 2018

  • 4x 105mm cameras

  • Field of view: 24°x24° (each camera)

  • Eccentric earth orbit

Plato

  • Launch scheduled 2026

  • 26x120mm cameras

  • Field of view: 2232 square degrees (combined)

  • L2 (Earth-Sun Lagrange point behind Earth)

Microlensing

  • Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope

  • Launch scheduled by 2027

  • 2.4m Mirror

  • Wide-Field Instrument (WFI): 0.28 square degrees (that's big), 300.8 megapixels

  • (also includes a Coronagraphic Instrument (CGI): Goal $10^{-8}$ contrast and inner working angle of 0.15 arcsec, but demoted to technology demonstration)

–- Image Credit: NASA (interactive view)

Astrometry

Gaia

  • Launched 2013

  • Single measurement astrometric precision ≈60 microarcseconds for the brightest stars

  • " With some plausible assumptions on planet occurrences, we find that some 21,000 (±6000) high-mass ($\sim~1-15M_J$) long-period planets should be discovered out to distances of ~500 pc for the nominal 5 yr mission (including at least 1000-1500 around M dwarfs out to 100 pc), rising to some 70,000 (±20, 000) for a 10 yr mission." – Perryman et al. 2014

Radial Velocities

New generation:

  • Optical:

    • ESPRESSO: VLT (8.2m), ~2016–present

    • EXPRES: DCT (4.3m): ~2020–present

    • NEID: WIYN (3.5m): ~2021–present

    • KPF: Keck (10m): 2022 (last week)–present (concept started in 2014)

  • IR:

    • CARMENES (3.5m): 2016–present

    • HPF (10m*): ~2018–present

    • MAROON-X (8m.1): ~2019–present

  • Substantial improvements in instrumental stability and calibration relative to first generation of RV-hunting spectrographs.

  • Intrinsic stellar variability currently limits the detectability of low-mass planets for most stars

Another generation of spectrographs will be needed to reach an Earth-twin ($1 M_\oplus$, 1 AU, $1 M_\odot$ host → $K = 9$ cm/s $\times \sin i$). Next generation:

–- Credit: Sam Halverson

–- Credit: Morgan et al. 2021 submitted/Crass et al. 2021

Direct Imaging

Question:

Have any hot Jupiters been imaged?

Question:

What is the best waveband to spot exoplanets?

JWST

Question:

How often will James Webb be used to image exoplanets?

Check out approved JWST observing programs.

  • All exoplanet & disks programs: 1403.6 hours out of 4,896.3 hours ≃ 28.6%

  • Looks like ~6 GO Cycle 1 programs aim for direct imaging of planets.

Future Direct Imaging Misson Concepts:

Decadal Survey Inputs:

  • HabEx (4m)

  • LUVOIR (8m and 15m options)

Decadal Survey Recommendation:

Question:

What types of star are better for direct imaging of their planets?

–- Credit: HabEx Final Report

–- Credit: Morgan et al. 2021 submitted/Crass et al. 2021

Projected Yield of Proposed EPRV Survey

–- Credit: Luhn et al. 2022

–- Credit: Luhn et al. 2022

Question:

What are some of the "more sophisticated" ways to image mature planets and and why are they necessary?

Question:

Will the planet's spectrum suffer from the contamination of stellar light, stellar wind, or circumstellar materials? If so, how can astronomers eliminate such contamination?

Question:

Are coronagraphs just able to observe objects with very small [angular] separations or do they offer any other large scale benefits?

Future of Exoplanet Characterization

Radial Velocities

Transits

Transit/Occultation Spectroscopy

JWST

Ariel

  • Luanch scheduled 2029

  • 1.1 x 0.7 meter primary

Setup/Helper Code

     

Built with Julia 1.8.3 and

PlutoTeachingTools 0.2.5
PlutoUI 0.7.48
ShortCodes 0.3.3

To run this tutorial locally, download this file and open it with Pluto.jl.