CHEOPS: towards exoplanet characterization

Autor(en)

Andrea Fortier, Thomas Beck, Willy Benz, Christopher Broeg, Virginie Cessa, David Ehrenreich, Roland Ottensamer, Isabella Pagano, Gisbert Peter, Jean-Yves Plesseria, Roberto Ragazzoni, Francesco Ratti, Manfred Steller, Janos Szoke

Abstrakt

The CHaracterising ExOPlanet Satellite (CHEOPS) is a joint

ESA-Switzerland space mission dedicated to search for exoplanet transits

by means of ultra-high precision photometry. It is expected to be

launch-ready at the end of 2017. CHEOPS will be the first space

observatory dedicated to search for transits on bright stars already

known to host planets. It will have access to more than 70% of the sky.

This will provide the unique capability of determining accurate radii

for planets for which the mass has already been estimated from

ground-based spectroscopic surveys and for new planets discovered by the

next generation ground-based transits surveys (Neptune-size and

smaller). The measurement of the radius of a planet from its transit

combined with the determination of its mass through radial velocity

techniques gives the bulk density of the planet, which provides direct

insights into the structure and/or composition of the body. In order to

meet the scientific objectives, a number of requirements have been

derived that drive the design of CHEOPS. For the detection of Earth and

super-Earth planets orbiting G5 dwarf stars with V-band magnitudes in

the range 6 V 9 mag, a photometric precision of 20 ppm in 6 hours of

integration time must be reached. This time corresponds to the transit

duration of a planet with a revolution period of 50 days. In the case of

Neptune-size planets orbiting K-type dwarf with magnitudes as faint as

V=12 mag, a photometric precision of 85 ppm in 3 hours of integration

time must be reached. The CHEOPS mission payload consists of only one

instrument, a space telescope of 30 cm clear aperture, which has a

single CCD focal plane detector. The total required duration of the

CHEOPS mission is estimated to be 3.5 years (goal: 5 years).

Organisation(en)

Institut für Astrophysik

Externe Organisation(en)

Universität Bern

Seiten

76

Publikationsdatum

07-2015

ÖFOS 2012

103003 Astronomie, 103004 Astrophysik

Link zum Portal

https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/de/publications/cheops-towards-exoplanet-characterization(153538f1-50c0-4cd9-8f92-8c01fb9bbf8c).html