EChO - Exoplanet Characterisation Observatory
Abstract
A dedicated mission to investigate exoplanetary atmospheres represents a major milestone in our quest to understand our place in the universe by placing our Solar System in context and by addressing the suitability of planets for the presence of life. EChO -the Exoplanet Characterisation Observatory- is a mission concept specifically geared for this purpose. EChO will provide simultaneous, multi-wavelength spectroscopic observations on a stable platform that will allow very long exposures. EChO will build on observations by Hubble, Spitzer and groundbased telescopes, which discovered the first molecules and atoms in exoplanetary atmospheres. EChO will simultaneously observe a broad enough spectral region -from the visible to the mid-IR- to constrain from one single spectrum the temperature structure of the atmosphere and the abundances of the major molecular species. The spectral range and resolution are tailored to separate bands belonging to up to 30 molecules to retrieve the composition and temperature structure of planetary atmospheres. The target list for EChO includes planets ranging from Jupiter-sized with equilibrium temperatures Teq up to 2000 K, to those of a few Earth masses, with Teq ~300 K. We have baselined a dispersive spectrograph design covering continuously the 0.4-16 micron spectral range in 6 channels (1 in the VIS, 5 in the IR), which allows the spectral resolution to be adapted from several tens to several hundreds, depending on the target brightness. The instrument will be mounted behind a 1.5 m class telescope, passively cooled to 50 K, with the instrument structure and optics passively cooled to ~45 K. EChO will be placed in a grand halo orbit around L2. We have also undertaken a first-order cost and development plan analysis and find that EChO is easily compatible with the ESA M-class mission framework.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1112.2728,
title = {EChO - Exoplanet Characterisation Observatory},
author = {G. Tinetti and J. P. Beaulieu and T. Henning and M. Meyer and G. Micela and I. Ribas and D. Stam and M. Swain and O. Krause and M. Ollivier and E. Pace and B. Swinyard and A. Aylward and R. van Boekel and A. Coradini and T. Encrenaz and I. Snellen and M. R. Zapatero-Osorio and J. Bouwman and J. Y-K. Cho and V. Coudé du Foresto and T. Guillot and M. Lopez-Morales and I. Mueller-Wodarg and E. Palle and F. Selsis and A. Sozzetti and P. A. R. Ade and N. Achilleos and A. Adriani and C. B. Agnor and C. Afonso and C. Allende Prieto and G. Bakos and R. J. Barber and M. Barlow and P. Bernath and B. Bezard and P. Bordé and L. R. Brown and A. Cassan and C. Cavarroc and A. Ciaravella and C. O. U. Cockell and A. Coustenis and C. Danielski and L. Decin and R. De Kok and O. Demangeon and P. Deroo and P. Doel and P. Drossart and L. N. Fletcher and M. Focardi and F. Forget and S. Fossey and P. Fouqué and J. Frith and M. Galand and P. Gaulme and J. I. González Hernández and O. Grasset and D. Grassi and J. L. Grenfell and M. J. Griffin and C. A. Griffith and U. Grözinger and M. Guedel and P. Guio and O. Hainaut and R. Hargreaves and P. H. Hauschildt and K. Heng and D. Heyrovsky and R. Hueso and P. Irwin and L. Kaltenegger and P. Kervella and D. Kipping and T. T. Koskinen and G. Kovács and A. La Barbera and H. Lammer and E. Lellouch and G. Leto and M. Lopez Morales and M. A. Lopez Valverde and M. Lopez-Puertas and C. Lovis and A. Maggio and J. P. Maillard and J. Maldonado Prado and J. B. Marquette and F. J. Martin-Torres and P. Maxted and S. Miller and S. Molinari and D. Montes and A. Moro-Martin and J. I. Moses and O. Mousis and N. Nguyen Tuong and R. Nelson and G. S. Orton and E. Pantin and E. Pascale and S. Pezzuto and D. Pinfield and E. Poretti and R. Prinja and L. Prisinzano and J. M. Rees and A. Reiners and B. Samuel and A. Sanchez-Lavega and J. Sanz Forcada and D. Sasselov and G. Savini and B. Sicardy and A. Smith and L. Stixrude and G. Strazzulla and J. Tennyson and M. Tessenyi and G. Vasisht and S. Vinatier and S. Viti and I. Waldmann and G. J. White and T. Widemann and R. Wordsworth and R. Yelle and Y. Yung and S. N. Yurchenko},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1112.2728},
year = {2015}
}
Comments
Accepted for publication in Experimental Astronomy, 23 pages, 15 figures