Finding and Characterizing Other Worlds: the Thermal-IR ELT Opportunity
Abstract
The next generation ground-based extremely large telescopes (ELTs) present incredible opportunities to discover and characterize diverse planetary systems, even potentially habitable worlds. Adaptive-optics assisted thermal-IR (3-14 micron) imaging is a powerful tool to study exoplanets with extant 6-12 meter telescopes. ELTs have the spatial resolution and sensitivity that offer an unparalleled expansion of the available discovery space. AO-assisted thermal-IR instruments on ELTs will be superior to JWST for high contrast imaging in the thermal-IR, and complementary to high contrast observations at shorter wavelengths, in space or with second-generation extreme AO instruments. With appropriate investments in instrumentation and pre-cursor observations, thermal-IR equipped ELTs could image the first terrestrial and super-earth planets around nearby stars, opening the door to characterization of potentially habitable planets from the ground and space.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1804.03218,
title = {Finding and Characterizing Other Worlds: the Thermal-IR ELT Opportunity},
author = {Michael R. Meyer and Thayne Currie and Olivier Guyon and Yasuhiro Hasegawa and Markus Kasper and Christian Marois and John Monnier and Katie Morzinski and Chris Packham and Sascha Quanz},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1804.03218},
year = {2018}
}
Comments
White paper submitted in response to the call for Exoplanet Science Strategy Documents by the NAS: http://sites.nationalacademies.org/SSB/CurrentProjects/SSB_180659