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Extrasolar planet detection: Methods and limits. Ge/Ay133. Spectral Energy Distributions (or, Blinded by the light!...). How do you find a planet?. Look for it? Hard (as we’ve seen)!. Only planets imaged are very young and far from their stars. Are such objects
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Extrasolar planet detection: Methods and limits Ge/Ay133
Spectral Energy Distributions (or, Blinded by the light!...)
How do you find a planet? • Look for it? Hard (as we’ve seen)! Only planets imaged are very young and far from their stars. Are such objects common or rare?
How do you find a planet? • Look for it? Hard! • Where should you look? Few AU? • Look for its affect on the star? (Indirect)
200 mas Astrometric displacement of the Sun due to Jupiter as seen from a distance of 10 pc (Current state of the art w/Keck AO = 200 mas, as of 2007)
Discovery space for indirect methods: Radial velocity Astrometry (r=distance to the star)
Radial velocity signature is distance independent (S/N is not!) First (written) proposal by Otto Struve,The Observatory 72, p. 199-200 (1952) 51 Peg announced in 1995 (PSR 1257+12 in 1992). .
Spectroscopy with Echelles: Keck Photons have come a long way, don’t lose them! Echelle spectrometers in conjunction with large format arrays can provide R~30,000-100,000 spectra across the entire visible or near-IR range (l<5 mm, good for late type stars and brown dwarfs).
Discovery space for indirect methods: Radial velocity Astrometry
Other distance independent tracers? TRANSITS Technique proposed in 1952, HD 209458 detected in 2000.
Astrometry? Hard w/single apertures, but moving forward, ultimately to imaging. Keck LGS-AO image, can now achieve ~200 mas precision over short timescales. HST worse. ACS + Coronograph (HD 141569) Artist’s conception, TPF-C (coronograph).
In the optical, difficult to maintain strict instrument stability, so use “dual star” astrometry. Large apertures are needed to get enough background stars nearby.
Space Interferometry Mission (SIM)
Nulling: Use the fringes to suppress the central star. First tests w/ Keck in 2007.