[FPSPACE] The Small Prototype Planet Finding Interferometer (SPPFI)

[LARRY KLAES]

Towards a Small Prototype Planet Finding Interferometer: The next step in 
planet finding and characterization in the infrared

Authors: W.C. Danchi, D. Deming, K. G. Carpenter, R. K. Barry, P. Hinz, K. 
J. Johnston, P. Lawson, O. Lay, J. D. Monnier, L. J. Richardson, S. 
Rinehart, W. Traub

(Submitted on 30 Jan 2008)

Abstract: During the last few years, considerable effort has been directed 
towards large-scale (more than $1 Billion US) missions to detect and 
characterize earth-like planets around nearby stars, such as the Terrestrial 
Planet Finder Interferometer (TPF-I) and Darwin missions.

However, technological and budgetary issues as well as shifting science 
priorities will likely prevent these missions from entering Phase A until 
the next decade. The secondary eclipse technique using the Spitzer Space 
Telescope has been used to directly measure the temperature and emission 
spectrum of extrasolar planets. However, only a small fraction of known 
extrasolar planets are in transiting orbits.

Thus, a simplified nulling interferometer, which produces an artificial 
eclipse or occultation, and operates in the near- to mid-infrared (e.g. ~ 3 
to 8 or 10 microns), can characterize the atmospheres of this much larger 
sample of the known but non-transiting exoplanets. Many other scientific 
problems can be addressed with a system like this, including imaging debris 
disks, active galactic nuclei, and low mass companions around nearby stars.

We discuss the rationale for a probe-scale mission in the $600-800 Million 
range, which we name here as the Small Prototype Planet Finding 
Interferometer (SPPFI).

Comments: 8 pages, 4 figures, white paper for Exoplanet Task Force, March 
2007

Subjects: Astrophysics (astro-ph)

Cite as: arXiv:0801.4752v1 [astro-ph]

Submission history

From: William Danchi [view email]

[v1] Wed, 30 Jan 2008 20:04:56 GMT (1420kb)

http://arxiv.org/abs/0801.4752