The WFIRST Exoplanet Microlensing Survey
Abstract
The Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) was the top ranked large space mission in the 2010 New Worlds, New Horizons decadal survey, and it was formed by merging the science programs of 3 different mission concepts, including the Microlensing Planet Finder (MPF) concept (Bennett \etal\ 2010). The WFIRST science program (Spergel \etal\ 2015) consists of a general observer program, a wavefront controlled technology program, and two targeted science programs: a program to study dark energy, and a statistical census of exoplanets with a microlensing survey, which uses nearly one quarter of WFIRST's observing time in the current design reference mission. The New Worlds, New Horizons (decadal survey) midterm assessment summarizes the science case for the WFIRST exoplanet microlensing survey with this statement: "WFIRST's microlensing census of planets beyond 1 AU will perfectly complement Kepler's census of compact systems, and WFIRST will also be able to detect free-floating planets unbound from their parent stars\rlap."
Cite
@article{arxiv.1803.08564,
title = {The WFIRST Exoplanet Microlensing Survey},
author = {David P. Bennett and Rachel Akeson and Jay Anderson and Lee Armus and Etienne Bachelet and Vanessa Bailey and Thomas Barclay and Richard Barry and Jean-Phillipe Beaulieu and Andrea Belini and Dominic J. Benford and Aparna Bhattacharya and Padi Boyd and Valerio Bozza and Sebastiano Calchi Novati and Kenneth Carpenter and Arnaud Cassan and David Ciardi and Andrew Cole and Knicole Colon and Christian Coutures and Martin Dominik and Pascal Fouque and Kevin Grady and Tyler Groff and Calen B. Henderson and Keith Horne and Christopher Gelino and Dawn Gelino and Jason Kalirai and Stephen Kane and N. Jeremy Kasdin and Jeffrey Kruk and Seppo Laine and Michiel Lambrechts and Luigi Mancini and Avi Mandell and Sangeeta Malhotra and Shude Mao and Michael McElwain and Bertrand Mennesson and Tiffany Meshkat and Leonidas Moustakas and Jose A. Munoz and David Nataf and Roberta Paladini and Ilaria Pascucci and Matthew Penny and Radek Poleski and Elisa Quintana and Clement Ranc and Nicholas Rattenbury and James Rhodes and Jason D. Rhodes and Maxime Rizzo and Aki Roberge and Leslie Rogers and Kailash C. Sahu and Joshua Schlieder and Sara Seager and Yossi Shvartzvald and Remi Soummer and David Spergel and Keivan G. Stassun and Rachel Street and Takahiro Sumi and Daisuke Suzuki and John Trauger and Roeland van der Marel and Benjamin F. Williams and Edward J. Wollack and Jennifer Yee and Atsunori Yonehara and Neil Zimmerman},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1803.08564},
year = {2018}
}
Comments
White paper submitted to the National Academy Committee on an Exoplanet Science Strategy; 6 pages (typo fixed)