The Exoplanet Characterization Observatory (EChO): performance model and applications

Autor(en)
Roy von Boekel, B. Benneke, Kevin Heng, Renyu Hu, N. Madhusudhan, Manuel Güdel, Franz Kerschbaum, Armin Luntzer, Roland Ottensamer, Theresa Rank-Lüftinger
Abstrakt

We present EclipseSim, a radiometric model for exoplanet transit spectroscopy that allows easy exploration of the fundamental performance limits of any space-based facility aiming to perform such observations. It includes a library of stellar model atmosphere spectra and can either approximate exoplanet spectra by simplified models, or use any theoretical or observed spectrum, to simulate observations. All calculations are done in a spectrally resolved fashion and the contributions of the various fundamental noise sources are budgeted separately, allowing easy assessment of the dominant noise sources, as a function of wavelength. We apply EclipseSim to the Exoplanet Characterization Observatory (EChO), a proposed mission dedicated to exoplanet transit spectroscopy that is currently in competition for the M3 launch slot of ESA’s cosmic vision programme. We show several case studies on planets with sizes in the super-Earth to Jupiter range, and temperatures ranging from the temperate to the ≍1500K regime, demonstrating the power and versatility of EChO. EclipseSim is publicly available.

Organisation(en)
Institut für Astrophysik
Externe Organisation(en)
Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie
Journal
Proceedings of SPIE
Band
8442
Anzahl der Seiten
21
ISSN
0277-786X
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1117/12.926794
Publikationsdatum
09-2012
Peer-reviewed
Ja
ÖFOS 2012
103003 Astronomie, 103004 Astrophysik
Link zum Portal
https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/de/publications/9f49f75f-4844-47f2-bfb6-367f7cd013b0