Direct Imaging And Spectroscopy Of Extrasolar Planets

Direct imaging and spectroscopy is the likely means by which we will someday identify, confirm, and characterize an Earth-like planet around a nearby Sun-like star.

This Chapter summarizes the current state of knowledge regarding discovering and characterizing exoplanets by direct imaging and spectroscopy. We detail instruments and software needed for direct imaging detections and summarize the current inventory of confirmed and candidate directly-imaged exoplanets. Direct imaging and spectroscopy in the past decade has provided key insights into jovian planet atmospheres, probed the demographics of the outskirts of planetary systems, and shed light on gas giant planet formation.

We forecast the new tools and future facilities on the ground and in space that will enhance our capabilities for exoplanet imaging and will likely image habitable zone rocky planets around the nearest stars.

Thayne Currie, Beth Biller, Anne-Marie Lagrange, Christian Marois, Olivier Guyon, Eric Nielsen, Mickael Bonnefoy, Robert De Rosa

Comments: 34 pages; 19 figures; Review of the Direct Imaging field in Protostars and Planets VII; comments welcome
Subjects: Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP); Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM); Solar and Stellar Astrophysics (astro-ph.SR)
Cite as: arXiv:2205.05696 [astro-ph.EP] (or arXiv:2205.05696v1 [astro-ph.EP] for this version)
https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2205.05696
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Submission history
From: Thayne Currie
[v1] Wed, 11 May 2022 18:00:01 UTC (19,488 KB)
https://arxiv.org/abs/2205.05696
Astrobiology