Exoplanetology: Exoplanets & Exomoons

CHES: A Space-borne Astrometric Mmission For The Detection Of Habitable Planets Of The Nearby Solar-type Star

By Keith Cowing
astro-ph.EP
May 11, 2022
Filed under
CHES: A Space-borne Astrometric Mmission For The Detection Of Habitable Planets Of The Nearby Solar-type Star
Distribution of known habitable-zone planets.

The Closeby Habitable Exoplanet Survey (CHES) mission is proposed to discover habitable-zone Earth-like planets of the nearby solar-type stars (~10pc away from our solar system) via micro-arcsecond relative astrometry.

The major scientific goals of this mission are: to search for Earth Twins or the terrestrial planets in habitable zones orbiting 100 FGK nearby stars; further to conduct a comprehensive survey and extensively characterize the nearby planetary systems.

CHES will offer the first direct measurements of true masses and inclinations of Earth Twins and super-Earths orbiting our neighbor stars based on micro-arcsecond astrometry from space. This will definitely enhance our understanding of the formation of diverse nearby planetary systems and the emergence of other worlds for solar-type stars, and finally to reflect the evolution of our own solar system.

The primary payload is a high-quality mirror with a diameter of 1.2 m, a FOV of 0.44° x 0.44°. The coaxial three-reflection TMA system is designed, along with Mosaic CCDs and the laser metrology technique, to archive 1 {\mu}as astrometric precision at 500nm~900nm. CHES satellite operates at the Sun-Earth L2 point and observes the entire target stars for 5 years.

CHES will produce fruitful achievements not only in the Earth-like planets but also for cosmology, dark matter and black holes, which helps us better understand the philosophy, life and planet.

Jianghui Ji, Haitao Li, Junbo Zhang, Liang Fang, Dong Li, Su Wang, Yang Cao, Lei Deng, Baoquan Li, Hao Xian, Xiaodong Gao, Ang Zhang, Fei Li, Jiacheng Liu, Zhaoxiang Qi, Sheng Jin, Yaning Liu, Guo Chen, Mingtao Li, Yao Dong, CHES consortium

Comments: 43 pages
Subjects: Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP); Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA); Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM)
Cite as: arXiv:2205.05645 [astro-ph.EP] (or arXiv:2205.05645v1 [astro-ph.EP] for this version)
Submission history
From: Jianghui Ji
[v1] Wed, 11 May 2022 17:20:29 UTC (4,719 KB)
https://arxiv.org/abs/2205.05645
Astrobiology

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) 🖖🏻