1. The Future of Exoplanet Direct Detection
- Author
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John Monnier, Gioia Rau, Ellyn K Baines, Joel Sanchez‐Bermudez, Martin Elvis, Sam Ragland, Rachel L Akeson, Gerard van Belle, Ryan Norris, Kathryn Gordon, Denis Defrère, Stephen Ridgway, Jean‐Baptiste Le Bouquin, Narsireddy Anugu, Nicholas Scott, Stephen Kane, Noel Richardson, Zsolt Regal, Zhaohuan Zhu, Andrea Chiavassa, Gautam Vasisht, Keivan G Stassun, Chuanfei Dong, Olivier Absi, Sylvestre Lacour, Gerd Weigelt, Douglas Gies, Fred C Adams, Nuria Calvet, Sascha P. Quanz, Catherine Espaillat, Tyler Gardner, Alexandra Greenbaum, Rafael Millan‐Gabet, Chris Packham, Mario Gai, Quentin Kral, Jean‐Philippe Berger, Hendrik Linz, Lucia Klarmann, Jaehan Bae, Rebeca Garcia Lopez, Gallenne Alexandre, Fabien Baron, Lee Hartmann, Makoto Kishimoto, Melissa McClure, Johan Olofsson, Chris Haniff, Michael Line, Romain G. Petrov, Michael Smith, Christian Hummel, Theo ten Brummelaar, Matthew De Furio, Stephen Rinehart, David Leisawitz, William Danchi, Daniel Huber, Edward Wishnow, Denis Mourard, Benjamin Pope, Michael Ireland, Stefan Kraus, Benjamin Setterholm, and Russel White
- Subjects
Instrumentation And Photography - Abstract
Diffraction fundamentally limits our ability to image and characterize exoplanets. Currant and planned coronagraphic searches for exoplanets are making incredible strides but are fundamentally limited by the inner working angle of a few λ/D. Some crucial topics, such as demographics of exoplanets within the first 50 Myr and the infrared characterization of terrestrial planets, are beyond the reach of the single aperture angular resolution for the foreseeable future. Interferometry offers some advantages in exoplanet detection and characterization and we explore in this white paper some of the potential scientific breakthroughs possible. We demonstrate here that investments in "exoplanet interferometry" could open up new possibilities for speckle suppression through spatial coherence, a giant boost in astrometric precision for determining exoplanet orbits, ability to take a census of young giant exoplanets (clusters <50 Myr age), and an unrivaled potential for infrared nulling from space to detect terrestrial planets and search for atmospheric biomarkers. All signs point to an exciting future for exoplanets and interferometers, albeit a promise that will take decades to fulfill.
- Published
- 2019