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Direct detection of exoplanets in the 3-10μm range with E-ELT/METIS

Haghighipour, Nader ; Quanz, Sascha P. ; Crossfield, Ian ; Meyer, Michael R. ; Schmalzl, Eva ; Held, Jenny

In: International Journal of Astrobiology, 2015, vol. 14, no. 2, p. 279-289

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    Titre
    • Direct detection of exoplanets in the 3-10μm range with E-ELT/METIS
    Auteur
    • Haghighipour, Nader. 1 Institute for Astronomy, ETH Zurich, Wolfgang-Pauli-Strasse 27, 8093 Zurich, Switzerland
    • Quanz, Sascha P.. Institute for Astronomy, ETH Zurich, Wolfgang-Pauli-Strasse 27, 8093 Zurich, Switzerland
    • Crossfield, Ian. Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Konigstuhl 17, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany
    • Meyer, Michael R.. Institute for Astronomy, ETH Zurich, Wolfgang-Pauli-Strasse 27, 8093 Zurich, Switzerland
    • Schmalzl, Eva. Leiden Observatory, Leiden University, P.O. Box 9513, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands
    • Held, Jenny. Department of Physics, ETH Zurich, 8093 Zurich, Switzerland
    Type de document
    • Postprint
    Langue
    • Anglais
    Publié dans
    • International Journal of Astrobiology, 2015, vol. 14, no. 2, p. 279-289. Cambridge University Press
    Autre version électronique
    Identifiant OAI-PMH
    • oai:doc.rero.ch:297461
    Summary
    We quantify the scientific potential for exoplanet imaging with the mid-infrared E-ELT Imager and Spectrograph (METIS) foreseen as one of the instruments of the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT). We focus on two main science cases: (1) the direct detection of known gas giant planets found by radial velocity (RV) searches; and (2) the direct detection of small (1-4R⊕) planets around the nearest stars. Under the assumptions made in our modelling, in particular on the achievable inner working angle and sensitivity, our analyses reveal that within a reasonable amount of observing time METIS is able to image >20 already known, RV-detected planets in at least one filter. Many more suitable planets with dynamically determined masses are expected to be found in the coming years with the continuation of RV-surveys and the results from the GAIA astrometry mission. In addition, by extrapolating the statistics for close-in planets found by Kepler, we expect METIS might detect ≈10 small planets with equilibrium temperatures between 200 and 500K around the nearest stars. This means that (1) METIS will help constrain atmospheric models for gas giant planets by determining for a sizable sample their luminosity, temperature and orbital inclination; and (2) METIS might be the first instrument to image a nearby (super-) Earth-sized planet with an equilibrium temperature near that expected to enable liquid water on a planet surface