EPRAT ExoPlanetary Roadmap Advisory Team ESAs current exoplanetary activities

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EPRATExoPlanetary Roadmap Advisory TeamESAs
current exoplanetary activities

• Malcolm Fridlund, Fabio Favata
• ESA, ESTEC

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Big Questions

• What is the uniqueness of our own Earth?
• - The searching for, study characterization
  (incl. Atmospheres) of Terrestrial Exoplanets
  (TEs)
• Are we (lifeforms) alone?
• - The habitability of these worlds, search for
  biomarkers
• What is our past future?
• The formation of planets
• The evolution of planetary systems

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• Cosmic Vision is centered around four Grand
  Themes
• What are the conditions for planet formation and
• the emergence of life?
• From gas and dust to stars and planets
• From exo-planets to biomarkers
• Life and habitability in the Solar System
• How does the Solar system work?
• What are the Fundamental Physical Laws of the
  Universe?
• How did the Universe originate and what is it
  made of?

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Missions in CV - L-class large missions with a
cost to ESA of 650M - M-class Medium
missions with a cost to ESA of 450M -
Missions of Opportunity Participation at a
smaller level in other agencies missions (e.g.
SPICA) First tier of CV candidates selected in
2007. Current status - L-class No missions
foreseen before 2020 Technology development on
IXO, Jupiter mission and LISA (LISA pathfinder
in 2010) - M-class Studies of EUCLID, PLATO,
Cross- Scale, Marco Polo and SPICA. Solar Orbiter
added later
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Selection of M-candidate missions for further
development in late 2009 Non-selected mission
concepts discarded
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Rationale

• One of the four primary themes within the Cosmic
  Vision 2015-2025 plan addresses the subjects of
  conditions for planet formation and the emergence
  of life.
• A key long term goal within this context is to
  understand and characterize exo-planets, in
  particular Earth-like planets.
• ESAs Astronomy Working Group, following the
  analysis of the responses to the first Call for
  Mission for the Cosmic Vision Plan, has
  recognized the importance of this objective. It
  has therefore recommended to ESA to develop the
  necessary preconditions and technologies for
  achieving this goal.
• In response ESA has established the Exo-Planet
  Roadmap Advisory Team.

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Long term Goal/perspective

• EPRAT is to advise the Agency on the best
  scientific and technological roadmap to pursue in
  order to address the characterization of
  terrestrial exo-planets (up to the possible
  detection of biomarkers)

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A) Will build on emerging European exoplanet
community (Ground Space) - e.g. CoRoT
community, BDT, super-WASP, microlensing,
RV-groups B) Will increase flexibility to Cosmic
vision and themes including exoplanets C) Will
take into account international collaboration
opportunities.
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EPRAT Team

• Artie Hatzes, (Chair), Thuringer
  Landessternwarte Tautenburg, Germany
• Anthony Boccaletti, Observatoire de Meudon,
  France
• Rudolf Dvorak, Institute for Astronomy,
  University of Vienna, Austria
• Giusi Micela, INAF - Osservatorio Astronomico
  di Palermo, Italy
• Alessandro Morbidelli, Observatoire de la Cote
  d'Azur, France
• Andreas Quirrenbach, Landessternwarte,
  Heidelberg, Germany
• Heike Rauer, German Aerospace Center (DLR),
  Germany
• Franck Selsis, Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de
  Bordeaux (LAB), France
• Giovanna Tinetti, University College London, UK
• Stephane Udry, Université de Genevé,
  Switzerland
• Anja C. Andersen, Dark-Cosmology Center,
  Copenhagen, Dk (Expert)
• Malcolm Fridlund, (Secretary), ESA

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Tasks (1)

• The Advisory Team will consult with the broad
  community.
• Input has been solicited via an open Call for
  White Papers by ESA Summer of 2008 (25
  responses).
• The Advisory Team is evaluating the papers
  received and will take due account of them in the
  preparation of the final report.

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Tasks(2)

• This report is expected to cover the intermediate
  and long-term scientific goals for the field of
  exo-planet research.
• Report will include
• survey of existing and planned facilities, both
  ground- and space-based
• and the scientific goals likely to be achieved
  with these facilities.
• The team will identify
• future facilities and relevant technologies
  needed at these facilities to achieve the goals.
• Intermediate milestones that must be met before
  the longer-term goals can be considered feasible.

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Tasks(3)

• ESA will take the opportunity to study concepts
  not hitherto investigated for feasibility
• Such topics include
• Completely new concepts
• Topics not studied in a European context
• Collaborative concepts previously not
  investigated
• Studies will be initially be internal to ESA
• Science advise culled from EPRAT and invited
  experts.
• Technical expertise from SRE/PA
• Possible use of concurrent design facility

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Initial timeline

• Summer 2008ESA issues Call for White Papers
  (Deadline 30 July 2008 (1200 CEST))
• August 2008 - December 2009EPRAT prepares a
  draft roadmap, ESA carries out relevant internal
  technical studies evaluations
• Jan 2010Open workshop (ESTEC) at which EPRAT
  presents draft roadmap report to community and
  solicits feedback
• Summer 2010Final roadmap report is presented to
  ESA and to the scientific community.

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Brief overview of missions ground-based
facilities (under implementation, planned or
under study)
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Overview of missions and facilities- current

• CoRoT (see also next talk)
• Time frame Now (launch Dec 27, 2006) - 2012
• Transit mission
• Observes 2 x 3 deg field for 150d at time
• For extended mission revisit of one field
• Sensitivity 8 x 10-5 for 11-15 mag (variable time
  resolution)
• Results
• First terrestrial exoplanet (Feb 2009, Exo-7b)
  Total 7 published, 8 under immediate confirmation
• 60000 light curves acquired to date (25d to 153d)
• Currently several hundred transit candidates p (lt
  1d to 80d), sizes from terrestrial to brown
  dwarfs (94 in priority 1 2)
• Follow-Up is the big problem (Exo-7b takes gt 1
  year 140 HARPS observations

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Overview of missions and facilities Near- future
GROUND

• EELT (42m), other 30m class (2 US) facilities and
  associated instrumentation (e.g. EPICS - see WP).
  
• Time frame Now - 2020
• Results Indirect detection of TEs, Direct
  detection/spectra of Pegasids
• Ground transit surveys/ micro-lensing surveys
• Second generation instruments
• E.g. ?PRIMA (VLTI)?SPHERE (VLT), Espresso
• Super HARPS (WHT), 0.1 m/s RV
• SPACE
• Herschel
• Time frame Now - 2011
• Results Direct detection of zodiacal and
  Kuiper-Edgeworth disks in Sun like systems out to
  20pc (key program)

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Overview of missions and facilities

• Kepler
• Time frame NOW - 2013
• CoRoT follow-up - 100 000 stars during 4 years
• JWST
• Timeframe 2014 and beyond
• Direct detection/spectroscopy of hot giant
  planets
• Occulter?
• SPICA (if selected in 2010)
• 2015
• Possible coronograph, planet forming disks
• PLATO (if selected in 2010)
• 2017 - 2023
• Super CoRoT

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White Papers
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Overview of White Papers

• European participation in SIM-lite - Space
• 0.6 ?arcsec allow detection of 1 MEarth mass
  around 60-70 nearby stars.
• Comparison between astrometry, spectroscopy and
  RV measurements for finding targets for later
  study - Theory
• Astrometry deemed 1 order-of-magnitude better
  than RV/photometry
• ALADDIN - ground based L-band nulling
  interferometry in antarctica
• Detecting zodi dust around solar type stars
• Automated microlensing searches - surveys, ground
  space
• Ground based networks leading to space based
  implementations

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Overview of White Papers

• Darwin - The classical study
• EPICS - imager for ELT - ground
• Detection of Neptune/Super Earth w/i 10pc
• External Occulters Space
• Small (1-2m) Coronographs - Space
• SEE COAST -- direct detection of super Earths
• THESIS - space
• 1.4 m telescope in L2 feeding 2 MIR spectrometers
• Spectroscopic characterisation of Earth-like
  planets orbiting M-dwarfs
• SPICA coronograph - space
• Atmospheric modelling - theory
• Biomarkers as a function of time

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Overview of White Papers

• Exo-zodi characterisation - space
• Variety of FKSI and/or PEGASE
• High precision RV spectroscopy in IR - ground
• High stability, 1m/s, dedicated to m-dwarfs gt
  few Earth masses
• Fresnel Imager in space
• Variety of occulter
• Methods and technology status from EADS
• ESA has focussed on nulling interferometry in
  recent years. An industrial trade between
  interferometry, coronography and occulters can
  not be made on insight but require testbeds.
• Methods and technology status from ThalesAlenia

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EPRAT-Tasks

• Evaluation of WPs, own ideas
• External consultancy on dust related issues
• Manufacture a timeline for how events could
  unfold
• Prioritisation of top 3 (plus others ranking,
  relevance)
• Technology requirements/ compare requirements
  within SRE-PF
• Allocation of tasks - who does what assignment of
  members to concepts
• Internal ESA studies
• THESES
• Occulter

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Internal ESA Studies

• Will be internal
• No industrial involvement at the moment
• Main tasks Scientific capability, technical
  feasibility, cost (medium, Large or humongous)
• Science team culled from EPRAT outside expert
  consultations
• Should result in data useful for proposers for
  CV2015/2 (2010)
• May start technology development if and when

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Next step

• Expect draft report circulated to community in
  December 2009
• Open document at that time
• Workshop (open international attendance, ESTEC
  one of 2 last weeks of january 2010)
• Workshop will consist of
• Brief (expect participants to have read draft)
  description of each segment of draft report
• Open discussions about each segment
• Opportunity for community to directly interact
  and provide new input
• Final report released (electronically) June 2010
  in time for CV2015/2 call for letter-of-intent