Science Opportunities for HARPS-NEF

David W. LathamPDR - 6 December 2007

Transiting Planets

• ExoPlanet Task Force Report (draft)– Advice to NASA & NSF on exoplanet research

• 5/10/15 year time horizons

– Transiting planets are key in 5/10 year future• Yield actual mass, radius, density, structure

• Follow-up studies of planetary atmospheres

• Timing variations can detect Earth-sized planets

• Rossiter effect yields spin/orbit alignment

Ground-Based Discoveries

• Photometric surveys yield many candidates– Most candidates involve eclipsing stars– Confirmation requires radial velocity orbit– Sensitive to Jupiter-sized planets

• A few planets detected by RV also transit– Bright, best for follow-up work– Smallest (Gls436) is like Neptune

Space Missions

• MOST (small optics)– Follow-up of bright systems

• CoRoT (medium optics)– Survey a few square degrees for 5 months each– Discovered systems are faint

• Kepler (big optics)– Survey 100 square degrees for 3.5 years– Discovered systems are not quite so faint

Kepler MISSION CONCEPT

• Kepler Mission is optimized for findinghabitable planets ( 10 to 0.5 M )

in the HZ (out to 1 AU ) of solar-like stars

• Monitor 100,000 main-sequence stars• Use a one-meter Schmidt telescope:

FOV >100 deg2 with an array of 42 CCD• Photometric precision: < 20 ppm in 6.5

hours for V = 12 solar-like star=> 4 detection for Earth-size transit

• Mission: Earth-trailing orbit for continuous viewing, > 4 year duration

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Follow-Up Spectroscopy

• Initial reconnaissance spectroscopy– Identify stellar imposters– Characterize host star

• CfA Digital Speedometers

• New fiber-fed TRES instrument at FLWO

• Precise radial velocities for orbits/masses– HIRES, HET, HARPS-North

Gliese 436: R=3.8 REarth, M=23 MEarth

Kepler and HARPS

• Kepler yields 20 times better photometry

• HARPS yields 20 times better RV

• Kepler launch now 16 February 2009– First candidates 9 months later– HARPS ready for 2010 observing season

Transiting Exoplanet Sky Survey

• All-sky survey from space– Smaller planets than ground-based surveys– Finds brighter targets, allows better follow-up– Harvest of ~2000 transiting planets expected

• SMEX Proposal – due 15 January 2008– MIT, CfA, NASA Ames …– Launch could be 2011

The Legacy of Kepler

• Frequency/characteristics of planets– Mass, radius, density, orbital distributions– Reaches down to Earth-sized planets– Host star characteristics– Information for the design of future missions

Legacy of TESS

• The brightest and nearest transiting planets– Best targets for follow-up studies for years to

come

Other Opportunities

• HARPS-NEF available to ING users– Follow-up of candidates from other surveys– Rossiter effect– General quantitative spectroscopy– Asteroseismology