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Future of Exoplanet Characterization

Astro497, Week 15, Day 3

Logistics

  • Class presentations

Future of Exoplanet Characterization

Radial Velocities

  • Follow-up of transiting systems

  • Preparatory science for direct imaging missions

Question:

Is it possible that if a planet's atmosphere causes it to be much too hot or much too cold [for what?] that it would affect the Rossiter-Mclaughlin effect significantly?

Transits

  • Cheops: Follow-up of RV targets

  • TESS extended missions

  • Plato follow-up of Kepler field

Other new ground-based programs

  • Extremely Large Telescopes w/o new generations of adaptive optics (AO)

  • Radio astronomy: ALMA, Square Kilometer Array

Question:

How could we detect an exoplanet's magnetic field and its properties [relevant to protecting potential life from stellar winds]?

Transit/Occultation Spectroscopy

JWST

Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA & StScI

Credit: Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, and L. Hustak (STScI)

Question:

Is it safe to assume a planet radiates as a blackbody?

Question:

What kind of limitations will the JWST have when searching for biosignatures?

Ariel (Atmospheric Infrared Remote sensing Exoplnae Large Survey)

  • Luanch scheduled 2029

  • 4 year primary mission

  • 1.1 x 0.7 meter primary

  • Orbit about L2

  • Photometry & Spectroscopy spanning 0.5–7.8 μm

Question:

How likely is it that we will be able to image rogue planets with any current or upcoming direct imaging mission?

JWST GTO program aiming for 1 M_Jup planets in NGC 1333

Direct Imaging Misson Concepts:

Decadal Survey Inputs:

  • HabEx (4m)

    • Camera (general purpose)

    • Coronagraph

    • Spectragraph

      • Vis, Blue: 0.45–-0.67 μm, R~140

      • Vis, Red: 0.67-–1.0 μm, R~140

      • NIR: 0.975-–1.8 μm, R~40

    • Starshade (52m!)

  • LUVOIR (Large Ultraviolet Optical Infrared Surveyor)

    • LUVOIR-A: (8m)

    • LUVOIR-B: (15m)

    • Instruments:

      • Coronagraphic imager/spectrograph:

        • Near-UV (0.200-0.525 μm; R~140)

        • Optical (0.515-1.030 μm; R~70)

        • Near-IR (1-2 μm; R~200)

      • Optional star-shade

      • General purpose astrophysics instruments:

        • High-definition imager (UV/optical (200-950nm) and NIR (800–2500nm) arms)

        • Multiobject Spectragraph

        • Poliarization instrument (from ESA)

Decadal Survey Recommendation:

LUVOIR

Credit: NASA

HabEX

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Simulated Spectra from HabEX

Image Credit: HabEx Final Report

Simulated Earth Spectrum from LUVOIR

Image Credit: J. Lustig-Yaeger via LUVOIR Final Report

Question:

Can the presence of clouds interfere with spectral analysis of the atmosphere of a planet?

For example if the Earth was observed, and a cloud of water vapor obstructed the light of the sun passing through the atmosphere, could an observer misidentify the Earth's atmosphere to be majority water vapor? If so, are there ways to account for such errors?

For example if the Earth was observed, and a cloud of water vapor obstructed the light of the sun passing through the atmosphere, could an observer misidentify the Earth's atmosphere to be majority water vapor? If so, are there ways to account for such errors?

–- Schlundt et al. (2011)CC BY 4.0

Question:

What observations... would be sufficient to confidently determine the presence of a biosphere [on an exoplanet]?

How close is current technology to being able to achieve this, and what would be the impact of such a discovery?

How close is current technology to being able to achieve this, and what would be the impact of such a discovery?

Earth through time

Image Credit: Arney, Domagal-Goldman & Griswold via LUVOIR Final Report

Light curve of Earth (diurnal)

Image Credit: Ford, Seager & Turner 2002

Light curve of Earth (diurnal)

Image Credit: Ford, Seager & Turner 2002

Light curve of alternative Earths

Image Credit: Ford, Seager & Turner 2002

Evolution of Earth's light curve

Caption: Each curve is the average daily lightcurve over 9.3 days.
Left: Cloud-free. Right: Clouds
Image Credit: Palle et al. 2008

Autocorrelation function of Earth's lightcurve (equatorial view)

Black: Cloudless. Blue: Cloud-free.
Image Credit: Palle et al. 2008

Prepatory Extremely Precise Radial Velocity Survey

–- 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 types of star are better for direct imaging of their planets?

–- Credit: HabEx Final Report

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.