Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-xbtfd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T04:33:16.420Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The science of EChO

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 November 2011

Giovanna Tinetti ,
James Y-K. Cho ,
Caitlin A. Griffith ,
Olivier Grasset ,
Lee Grenfell ,
Tristan Guillot ,
Tommi T. Koskinen ,
Julianne I. Moses ,
David Pinfield  and
Jonathan Tennyson
...Show all authors
Giovanna Tinetti
Affiliation:
University College London, Gower street, London WC1E 6BT, UK email: [email protected]
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

The science of extra-solar planets is one of the most rapidly changing areas of astrophysics and since 1995 the number of planets known has increased by almost two orders of magnitude. A combination of ground-based surveys and dedicated space missions has resulted in 560-plus planets being detected, and over 1200 that await confirmation. NASA's Kepler mission has opened up the possibility of discovering Earth-like planets in the habitable zone around some of the 100,000 stars it is surveying during its 3 to 4-year lifetime. The new ESA's Gaia mission is expected to discover thousands of new planets around stars within 200 parsecs of the Sun. The key challenge now is moving on from discovery, important though that remains, to characterisation: what are these planets actually like, and why are they as they are?

In the past ten years, we have learned how to obtain the first spectra of exoplanets using transit transmission and emission spectroscopy. With the high stability of Spitzer, Hubble, and large ground-based telescopes the spectra of bright close-in massive planets can be obtained and species like water vapour, methane, carbon monoxide and dioxide have been detected. With transit science came the first tangible remote sensing of these planetary bodies and so one can start to extrapolate from what has been learnt from Solar System probes to what one might plan to learn about their faraway siblings. As we learn more about the atmospheres, surfaces and near-surfaces of these remote bodies, we will begin to build up a clearer picture of their construction, history and suitability for life.

The Exoplanet Characterisation Observatory, EChO, will be the first dedicated mission to investigate the physics and chemistry of Exoplanetary Atmospheres. By characterising spectroscopically more bodies in different environments we will take detailed planetology out of the Solar System and into the Galaxy as a whole.

EChO has now been selected by the European Space Agency to be assessed as one of four M3 mission candidates.

Keywords

planets and satellites: formationplanets and satellites: generalplanetary systemsplanetary systems: formation
Type
Contributed Papers
Information
Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union , Volume 6 , Symposium S276: The Astrophysics of Planetary Systems: Formation, Structure, and Dynamical Evolution , October 2010 , pp. 359 - 370
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2011

References

Ábrahám, P., Juhász, A., Dullemond, C. P., Kóspál, Á., van Boekel, R., Bouwman, J., Henning, T., Moór, A., Mosoni, L., Sicilia-Aguilar, A., & Sipos, N. 2009, Nature, 459, 224CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Adams, E. R., Seager, S., & Elkins-Tanton, L. 2008, ApJ, 673, 1160Google Scholar
Banzatti, A., Testi, L., Isella, A., Natta, A., Neri, R., & Wilner, D. J. 2011, A&A, 525, A12Google Scholar
Baraffe, I., Chabrier, G., & Barman, T. 2008, A&A, 482, 315Google Scholar
Baraffe, I., Chabrier, G., Barman, T. S., Allard, F., & Hauschildt, P. H. 2003, A&A, 402, 701Google Scholar
Bodenheimer, P., Lin, D. N. C., & Mardling, R. A. 2001, ApJ, 548, 466Google Scholar
Burrows, A., Budaj, J., & Hubeny, I. 2007, ApJ, 668, 671CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Charbonneau, D., Brown, T., Latham, D., & Mayor, M. 2000, ApJ, 529, L45CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cho, J., Menou, K., Hansen, B. M. S., & Seager, S. 2003, ApJL, 587, L117Google Scholar
Correia, A. & Laskar, J. 2004, Nature, 429, 848Google Scholar
GarcíaMuñoz, A. Muñoz, A. 2007, Plan. Space Sci., 55, 1426Google Scholar
Grasset, O., Schneider, J., & Sotin, C. 2009, ApJ, 693, 722CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grenfell, J. L., Rauer, H., Selsis, F., Kaltenegger, L., Beichman, C., Danchi, W., Eiroa, C., Fridlund, M., Henning, T., Herbst, T., Lammer, H., Léger, A., Liseau, R., Lunine, J., Paresce, F., Penny, A., Quirrenbach, A., Röttgering, H., Schneider, J., Stam, D., Tinetti, G., & White, G. J. 2010, Astrobiology, 10, 77CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guillot, T. 2005, Annu. Rev. Earth Plan. Sci., 33, 493Google Scholar
Guillot, T. 2008, Physica Scripta, T130, 014023Google Scholar
Guillot, T. 2010, A&A, 520, A27+Google Scholar
Guillot, T., Santos, N. C., Pont, F., Iro, N., Melo, C., & Ribas, I. 2006, A&A, 453, L21Google Scholar
Guillot, T. & Showman, A. P. 2002, A&A, 385, 156Google Scholar
Heng, K, Menou, K, Phillipps, P. J. 2011, MNRAS, 413, 2380Google Scholar
Hubeny, I., Burrows, A., & Sudarsky, D. 2003, ApJ, 594, 1011CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ikoma, M., Guillot, T., Genda, H., Tanigawa, T., & Ida, S. 2006, ApJ, 650, 1150CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kipping, D. 2009 a, MNRAS, 392, 181CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kipping, D. 2009 b, MNRAS, 396, 1797Google Scholar
Koskinen, T., Aylward, A., & Miller, S. 2007, Nature, 450, 845Google Scholar
Koskinen, T., Cho, J.-K., Achilleos, N., & Aylward, A. D. 2010, ApJ, 722, 178CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Léger, A., Selsis, F., Sotin, C., Guillot, T., Despois, D., Mawet, D., Ollivier, M., Labèque, A., Valette, C., Brachet, F., Chazelas, B., & Lammer, H. 2004, Icarus, 169, 499CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Liang, M.-C., Parkinson, C. D., Lee, A. Y. T., Yung, Y. L., & Seager, S. 2003, ApJL, 596, 247Google Scholar
Liang, M.-C., Seager, S., Parkinson, C. D., Lee, A. Y. T., & Yung, Y. L. 2004, ApJL, 605, 61Google Scholar
Line, M. R., Liang, M. C., & Yung, Y. L. 2010, ApJ, 717, 496CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Linsky, J. L., Yang, H., France, K., Froning, C. S., Green, J. C., Stocke, J. T., & Osterman, S. N. 2010, ApJ, 717, 1291Google Scholar
Lissauer, J. J. & Stevenson, D. J. 2007, Protostars and Planets V, 591Google Scholar
Lodders, K. & Fegley, B. 2002, Icarus, 155, 393CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miller, S., Stallard, T., & Smith, C., et al. 2006, Royal Society of London Transactions Series A, 364, 3121Google Scholar
Mordasini, C., Alibert, Y., & Benz, W. 2009, A&A, 501, 1139Google Scholar
Moses, J. I., Visscher, C., Fortney, J. J., Lewis, N. K., Showman, A. P., Marley, M. S., Griffith, C. A., & Friedson, A. J. 2011, ApJ, 737, id.15Google Scholar
Prinn, R. & Barshay, S. 1977, Science, 198, 1031CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sato, B., Fischer, D. A., Henry, G. W., Laughlin, G., Butler, R. P., Marcy, G. W., Vogt, S. S., Bodenheimer, P., Ida, S., Toyota, E., Wolf, A., Valenti, J. A., Boyd, L. J., Johnson, J. A., Wright, J. T., Ammons, M., Robinson, S., Strader, J., McCarthy, C., Tah, K. L., & Minniti, D. 2005, ApJ, 633, 465Google Scholar
Seager, S., Kuchner, M., Hier-Majumder, C. A., & Militzer, B. 2007, ApJ, 669, 1279Google Scholar
Segura, A., Kasting, J. F., Meadows, V., Cohen, M., Scalo, J., Crisp, D., Butler, R. A. H., & Tinetti, G. 2005, Astrobiology, 5, 706Google Scholar
Segura, A., Krelove, K., Kasting, J. F., Sommerlatt, D., Meadows, V., Crisp, D., Cohen, M., & Mlawer, E. 2003, Astrobiology, 3, 689CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Segura, A., Walkowicz, L. M., Meadows, V., Kasting, J., & Hawley, S. 2010, Astrobiology, 10, 751CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Selsis, F., Despois, D., & Parisot, J. 2002, A&A, 388, 985Google Scholar
Sotin, C., Grasset, O., & Mocquet, A. 2007, Icarus, 191, 337CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Swain, M. R., Vasisht, G., Tinetti, G., Bouwman, J., Chen, P., Yung, Y., Deming, D., & Deroo, P. 2009, ApJ, 690, L114Google Scholar
Thrastarson, H. T. & Cho, J. 2010, ApJ, 716, 144CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tinetti, G., et al. 2011, Experimental Astronomy, submittedGoogle Scholar
Tsiganis, K., Gomes, R., Morbidelli, A., & Levison, H. F. 2005, Nature, 435, 459CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Valencia, D., O'Connell, R. J., & Sasselov, D. 2006, Icarus, 181, 545CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Valencia, D., Sasselov, D. D., & O'Connell, R. J. 2007, ApJ, 665, 1413Google Scholar
Vidal-Madjar, A., Désert, J., Lecavelier des Etangs, A., Hébrard, G., Ballester, G. E., Ehrenreich, D., Ferlet, R., McConnell, J. C., Mayor, M., & Parkinson, C. D. 2004, ApJL, 604, L69CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Visscher, C., Lodders, K., & Fegley, B. 2006, ApJ, 648, 1181CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wordsworth, R. D., Forget, F., Selsis, F., Madeleine, J.-B., Millour, E., & Eymet, V. 2010, A&A, 522, A22Google Scholar
Yelle, R. V. 2004, Icarus, 170, 167Google Scholar
Yung, Y. L. & Demore, W. B., eds. 1999, Photochemistry of planetary atmospheresCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zahnle, K., Marley, M., Freedman, R., Lodders, K., & Fortney, J. 2009 a, ApJ, 701, L20CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zahnle, K., Marley, M. S., & Fortney, J. J. 2009 b, ApJ submitted (arXiv:0911.0728)Google Scholar