The CoRoT exoplanet programme: exploring the gas-giant/terrestrial planet transition
Abstract
CoRoT, which was launched successfully on the 27th of December 2006, is the first space mission to have the search for planetary transits at the heart of its science programme. It is expected to be able to detect transits of planets with radii down to approximately two Earth radii and periods up to approximately a month. Thus, CoRoT will explore the hereto uncharted area of parameter space which spans the transition between the gaseous giant planets discovered in large numbers from the ground, and terrestrial planets more akin to our own. This papers briefly sketches out the main technical characteristics of the mission before summarising estimates of its detection potential and presenting the data analysis and follow-up strategy.
Cite
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/0702062,
title = {The CoRoT exoplanet programme: exploring the gas-giant/terrestrial planet transition},
author = {S. Aigrain and P. Barge and M. Deleuil and F. Fressin and C. Moutou and D. Queloz and M. Auvergne and A. Baglin and the CoRoT Exoplanet Science Team},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/0702062},
year = {2007}
}
Comments
10 pages, 2 figures. A version with full resolution figures is available from http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/~suz/publi/CS14_corot.pdf