Related papers: Narrow-angle astrometry with PRIMA

The PLATO space mission is designed to detect telluric planets in the habitable zone of solar type stars, and simultaneously characterise the host star using ultra high precision photometry. The photometry will be performed on board using…

The idea of finding extrasolar planets (ESPs) through observations of drops in stellar brightness due to transiting objects has been around for decades. It has only been in the last ten years, however, that any serious attempts to find ESPs…

We show that a space-based gravitational microlensing survey for terrestrial extra-solar planets is feasible in the near future, and could provide a nearly complete picture of the properties of planetary systems in our Galaxy. We present…

We present the description of the instruments and the first results of the PRime-focus Infrared Microlensing Experiment (PRIME). PRIME is the first dedicated near-infrared (NIR) microlensing survey telescope located at the South African…

We propose to use low-rank matrix approximation using the component-wise L1-norm for direct imaging of exoplanets. Exoplanet detection by direct imaging is a challenging task for three main reasons: (1) the host star is several orders of…

We report results of a recently-completed pre-Formulation Phase study of SPIRIT, a candidate NASA Origins Probe mission. SPIRIT is a spatial and spectral interferometer with an operating wavelength range 25 - 400 microns. SPIRIT will…

We present the design of a novel instrument tuned to detect transiting exoplanet atmospheres. The instrument, which we call the exoplanet transmission spectroscopy imager (ETSI), makes use of a new technique called common-path multi-band…

Microlensing is the most promising method to study the statistical frequency of extra-solar planets orbiting typical (random) stars in the Milky Way, even those several kiloparsecs from Earth. The lensing zone corresponds to orbital…

Microlensing offers a unique opportunity to probe exoplanets that are temperate and beyond the snow line, as small as Jovian satellites, at extragalactic distance, and even free floating exoplanets, regimes where the sensitivity of other…

This chapter reviews various methods of detecting planetary companions to stars from an observational perspective, focusing on radial velocities, astrometry, direct imaging, transits, and gravitational microlensing. For each method, this…

The physical characterization of exoplanets will require to take spectra at several orbital positions. For that purpose, a direct imaging capability is necessary. Direct imaging requires an efficient stellar suppression mechanism,…

The Microlensing Planet Finder (MPF) is a proposed Discovery mission that will complete the first census of extrasolar planets with sensitivity to planets like those in our own solar system. MPF will employ a 1.1m aperture telescope, which…

Direct imaging of extra-solar planets has now become a reality, especially with the deployment and commissioning of the first generation of specialized ground-based instruments such as the GPI, SPHERE, P1640 and SCExAO. These systems will…

The Galactic Exoplanet Survey Telescope (GEST) will observe a 2 square degree field in the Galactic bulge to search for extra-solar planets using a gravitational lensing technique. This gravitational lensing technique is the only method…

Direct imaging searches for exoplanets around stars detect many spurious candidates that are in fact background field stars. To help distinguish these from genuine companions, multi-epoch astrometry can be used to identify a common proper…

We introduce the RISTRETTO instrument for ESO VLT, an evolution from the original idea of connecting the SPHERE high-contrast facility to the ESPRESSO spectrograph (Lovis et al 2017). RISTRETTO is an independent, AO-fed spectrograph…

We present theoretical analysis of the astrometric searches for extrasolar planets with the Space Interferometry Mission (SIM). Particularly, we derive a model for the future measurements with SIM and discuss the problem of reliable…

Transiting planet discoveries have yielded a plethora of information towards understanding the structure and atmospheres of extra-solar planets. These discoveries have been restricted to the short-period or low-periastron distance regimes…

Near-infrared photometry of transiting extrasolar planets can be of great scientific value. It is however not straightforward to reach the necessary millimagnitude precision. Here we report on our attempts to observe transits and secondary…

High precision differential Astrometry is the branch of astronomy that evaluates the relative position, distance and motion of celestial objects with respect to the stars present in the field of view. A mission called Theia has been…