SIM PlanetQuest: The Most Promising Near-Term Technique to Detect, Find Masses, and Determine Three-Dimensional Orbits of Nearby Habitable Planets

TL;DR

SIM PlanetQuest is a near-term space-based interferometry mission uniquely capable of detecting, characterizing, and determining the orbits of nearby habitable planets, providing critical data for future follow-up studies.

Contribution

This paper highlights SIM PlanetQuest's potential as the only mission capable of detecting and characterizing rocky habitable planets around nearby stars with precise mass and orbit measurements.

Findings

SIM can detect and confirm rocky planets in habitable zones.

It measures masses and three-dimensional orbits of nearby habitable planets.

SIM is the only current technology capable of these detailed characterizations.

Abstract

The past two Decadal Surveys in Astronomy and Astrophysics recommended the completion of a space-based interferometry mission, known today as SIM PlanetQuest, for its unique ability to detect and characterize nearby rocky planets (Bahcall 1991, McKee & Taylor 2001), as well as contributions to a broad range of problems in astrophysics. Numerous committees of the National Research Council as well as NASA Roadmaps have similarly highlighted SIM as the one technology that offers detection and characterization of rocky planets around nearby stars and which is technically ready. To date, SIM remains the only program with the capability of detecting and confirming rocky planets in the habitable zones of nearby solar-type stars. Moreover, SIM measures masses and three-dimensional orbits of habitable planets around nearby stars (within 25 pc); these are the only stars for which follow-up by other techniques is feasible, such as space-based spectroscopy, ground-based interferometry, and of course TPF.