Exoplanets & Exomoons

EarthFinder: A Precise Radial Velocity Probe Mission Concept For the Detection of Earth-Mass Planets Orbiting Sun-like Stars

By Keith Cowing
Press Release
astro-ph.IM
March 12, 2018
Filed under
EarthFinder: A Precise Radial Velocity Probe Mission Concept For the Detection of Earth-Mass Planets Orbiting Sun-like Stars
Extrasolar planet
SpaceRef

EarthFinder is a Probe Mission concept selected for study by NASA for input to the 2020 astronomy decadal survey.

This study is currently active and a final white paper report is due to NASA at the end of calendar 2018. We are tasked with evaluating the scientific rationale for obtaining precise radial velocity (PRV) measurements in space, which is a two-part inquiry: What can be gained from going to space? What can’t be done form the ground? These two questions flow down to these specific tasks for our study – Identify the velocity limit, if any, introduced from micro- and macro-telluric absorption in the Earth’s atmosphere; Evaluate the unique advantages that a space-based platform provides to emable the identification and mitigation of stellar acitivity for multi-planet signal recovery.

Peter Plavchan, Bryson Cale, Patrick Newman, Bahaa Hamze, Natasha Latouf, William Matzko, Chas Beichman, David Ciardi, Bill Purcell, Paul Lightsey, Heather Cegla, Xavier Dumusque, Vincent Bourrier, Courtney Dressing, Peter Gao, Gautam Vasisht, Stephanie Leifer, Sharon Wang, Jonathan Gagne, Samantha Thompson, Jonathan Crass, Andrew Bechter, Eric Bechter, Cullen Blake, Sam Halverson, Andrew Mayo, Thomas Beatty, Jason T Wright, Alex Wise, Angelle Tanner, Jason Eastman, Sam Quinn, Debra Fischer, Sarbani Basu, Sophia Sanchez-Maes, Andrew Howard, Kerry Vahala, Ji Wang, Scott Diddams, Scott Papp, Benjamin JS Pope, Emily Martin, Simon Murphy
(Submitted on 11 Mar 2018)

Comments: Submitted to the National Academies Committee on Exoplanet Science Strategy
Subjects: Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM); Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP); Solar and Stellar Astrophysics (astro-ph.SR)
Cite as: arXiv:1803.03960 [astro-ph.IM] (or arXiv:1803.03960v1 [astro-ph.IM] for this version)
Submission history
From: Peter Plavchan
[v1] Sun, 11 Mar 2018 13:36:39 GMT (1333kb)
https://arxiv.org/abs/1803.03960

Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA Space Station Payload manager/space biologist, Away Teams, Journalist, Lapsed climber, Synaesthete, Na’Vi-Jedi-Freman-Buddhist-mix, ASL, Devon Island and Everest Base Camp veteran, (he/him) 🖖🏻