Science Opportunities for HARPS-NEF David W. Latham PDR - 6 December 2007

Transiting Planets ExoPlanet Task Force Report (draft) –Advice to NASA & NSF on exoplanet research 5/10/15 year time horizons –Transiting planets are key in 5/10 year future Yield actual mass, radius, density, structure Follow-up studies of planetary atmospheres Timing variations can detect Earth-sized planets Rossiter effect yields spin/orbit alignment

Ground-Based Discoveries Photometric surveys yield many candidates –Most candidates involve eclipsing stars –Confirmation requires radial velocity orbit –Sensitive to Jupiter-sized planets A few planets detected by RV also transit –Bright, best for follow-up work –Smallest (Gls436) is like Neptune

Space Missions MOST (small optics) –Follow-up of bright systems CoRoT (medium optics) –Survey a few square degrees for 5 months each –Discovered systems are faint Kepler (big optics) –Survey 100 square degrees for 3.5 years –Discovered systems are not quite so faint

Kepler M ISSION C ONCEPT Kepler Mission is optimized for finding habitable planets ( 10 to 0.5 M  ) in the HZ (out to 1 AU ) of solar-like stars Monitor 100,000 main-sequence stars Use a one-meter Schmidt telescope: FOV >100 deg 2 with an array of 42 CCD Photometric precision: < 20 ppm in 6.5 hours for V = 12 solar-like star => 4  detection for Earth-size transit Mission: Earth-trailing orbit for continuous viewing, > 4 year duration 6

Follow-Up Spectroscopy Initial reconnaissance spectroscopy –Identify stellar imposters –Characterize host star CfA Digital Speedometers New fiber-fed TRES instrument at FLWO Precise radial velocities for orbits/masses –HIRES, HET, HARPS-North

Gliese 436: R=3.8 R Earth, M=23 M Earth

Kepler and HARPS Kepler yields 20 times better photometry HARPS yields 20 times better RV Kepler launch now 16 February 2009 –First candidates 9 months later –HARPS ready for 2010 observing season

Transiting Exoplanet Sky Survey All-sky survey from space –Smaller planets than ground-based surveys –Finds brighter targets, allows better follow-up –Harvest of ~2000 transiting planets expected SMEX Proposal – due 15 January 2008 –MIT, CfA, NASA Ames … –Launch could be 2011

The Legacy of Kepler Frequency/characteristics of planets –Mass, radius, density, orbital distributions –Reaches down to Earth-sized planets –Host star characteristics –Information for the design of future missions

Legacy of TESS The brightest and nearest transiting planets –Best targets for follow-up studies for years to come

Other Opportunities HARPS-NEF available to ING users –Follow-up of candidates from other surveys –Rossiter effect –General quantitative spectroscopy –Asteroseismology