Monday
Abstract
Discovering Exoplanets Hidden in the Stellar Noise
Twinkle - a mission to unravel the stories of planets in our galaxy
University College London
Twinkle is a space mission designed for the observation of the atmospheres of extrasolar planets through the use of optical and infrared spectroscopy. The mission implementation is based upon an approach that has been successfully applied in other demanding space disciplines.
The study of exoplanets has been incredibly successful over the past 20 years: over 3000 planets have been discovered in our galaxy, and along with these discoveries fundamental parameters such as the planetary mass, size and distance to the parent star have been acquired. In the past decade, pioneering results have been obtained using transit spectroscopy with the Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescopes and ground-based facilities, which have enabled the detection of a few of the most abundant chemical species, hazes and condensates, and have also permitted the study of the planetary thermal structure. The obvious next step is Twinkle: a small dedicated satellite designed to understand the make-up of the many newly found worlds through the measurement of their atmospheric signatures.
Twinkle will observe the chemical composition and weather of 100+ exoplanets in the Milky Way, including super-Earths (rocky planets 1-10 times the mass of Earth), Neptunes, sub-Neptunes and gas giants like Jupiter. It will also be capable of follow-up photometric observations of 1000+ exoplanets in the visible and infrared, as well as observations of Solar system objects, bright stars and disks. Twinkle is a cost-effective space mission taking advantage of lowered costs of access to space. The Twinkle satellite is being built in the UK and will be launched into a low-Earth sun-synchronous polar orbit in 2019, using flight proven spacecraft systems designed by Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd and high Technology Readiness Level science payload built by a consortium of UK institutes. The Twinkle science payload is composed of a visible-IR spectrograph (between 0.4 and 4.5μm) with resolving power R~70-300.
This presentation will give a summary of the mission with an update on mission status and recent developments.
The study of exoplanets has been incredibly successful over the past 20 years: over 3000 planets have been discovered in our galaxy, and along with these discoveries fundamental parameters such as the planetary mass, size and distance to the parent star have been acquired. In the past decade, pioneering results have been obtained using transit spectroscopy with the Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescopes and ground-based facilities, which have enabled the detection of a few of the most abundant chemical species, hazes and condensates, and have also permitted the study of the planetary thermal structure. The obvious next step is Twinkle: a small dedicated satellite designed to understand the make-up of the many newly found worlds through the measurement of their atmospheric signatures.
Twinkle will observe the chemical composition and weather of 100+ exoplanets in the Milky Way, including super-Earths (rocky planets 1-10 times the mass of Earth), Neptunes, sub-Neptunes and gas giants like Jupiter. It will also be capable of follow-up photometric observations of 1000+ exoplanets in the visible and infrared, as well as observations of Solar system objects, bright stars and disks. Twinkle is a cost-effective space mission taking advantage of lowered costs of access to space. The Twinkle satellite is being built in the UK and will be launched into a low-Earth sun-synchronous polar orbit in 2019, using flight proven spacecraft systems designed by Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd and high Technology Readiness Level science payload built by a consortium of UK institutes. The Twinkle science payload is composed of a visible-IR spectrograph (between 0.4 and 4.5μm) with resolving power R~70-300.
This presentation will give a summary of the mission with an update on mission status and recent developments.
Schedule
09:00 - 10:30
10:00
Monday
Larkin LT-D
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