Such advances will allow us to develop large transformative telescopes, covering a broad UV-optical-IR spectral range. The associated challenge of directly imaging very faint planets in orbit around nearby very bright stars is now well understood, with the key instrumentation also being perfected and developed. The ability to observe and characterise dozens of potentially Earth-like planets is within the realm of possibility due to rapid advances in key space and imaging technologies. An earliest launch date in the mid-2030s aligns with the ESA Voyage 2050. With the long development timescales required to bring such a mission to fruition, there is an urgent need to plan for such a mission. However, at the moment, one of the major scientific goals of exoplanet research lies tantalisingly beyond the capabilities of the current suite of space missions and ground-based telescopes: answering the question “Are we alone in the Universe?” To provide this answer requires the construction of a large UVOIR space-based observatory. There are several space missions, such as TESS (NASA, currently operational) and PLATO (ESA), which will extend the parameter space for exoplanet discovery towards the regime of rocky Earth-like planets and take the census of such bodies in the neighbourhood of the Solar System. However, neither instrument is capable of direct studies of exo-Earths. HST has been at the forefront of this work and it is anticipated that JWST will make further breakthroughs. A tremendous, previously unanticipated, advance is the ability to characterise the atmospheres of giant exoplanets through spectroscopic observations made in and out of transit. As techniques have improved, an amazing diversity of planet and system types has emerged. Through enhanced ground-based spectroscopic observations, transit detection techniques and the enormous productivity of the Kepler space mission, the number of confirmed planets has increased to more than 2000. From the first handful of gas giants, found through radial velocity studies, detection techniques have increased in sensitivity, finding smaller planets and diverse multi-planet systems. One of the most exciting scientific discoveries of the past 20 years has been the detection of exoplanets, orbiting stars beyond our own. This contribution is a White Paper that has been submitted in response to the ESA Voyage 2050 Call. LUVOIR, if selected, will be of interest to a wide scientific community and will be the only telescope capable of searching for and characterizing a sufficient number of exo-Earths to provide a meaningful answer to the question “Are we alone?”. The latest of these is the Large UV Optical IR space telescope (LUVOIR), one of four flagship mission studies commissioned by NASA in support of the 2020 US Decadal Survey. The ability to observe and characterise dozens of potentially rocky Earth-like planets now lies within the realm of possibility due to rapid advances in key space and imaging technologies and active studies of potential missions have been underway for a number of years. Several space missions, including TESS (NASA), now operational, and PLATO (ESA), will extend the parameter space for exoplanet discovery towards the regime of rocky Earth-like planets and take the census of such bodies in the neighbourhood of the Solar System. During the past 20 years the detection of exoplanets, orbiting stars beyond our own, has moved from science fiction to science fact. One of the most exciting scientific challenges is to detect Earth-like planets in the habitable zones of other stars in the galaxy and search for evidence of life.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |