Finding and Characterizing Other Worlds: the Thermal-IR ELT Opportunity

TL;DR

This paper discusses how upcoming extremely large telescopes equipped with adaptive optics and thermal-IR imaging will revolutionize the discovery and characterization of exoplanets, including potentially habitable worlds, surpassing current capabilities.

Contribution

It highlights the potential of thermal-IR ELT instruments for high-contrast imaging of exoplanets, emphasizing their advantages over existing telescopes and the importance of investments in instrumentation.

Findings

ELTs will enable imaging of terrestrial and super-Earth planets.

Thermal-IR ELTs will outperform JWST in high contrast imaging.

Ground-based ELTs will facilitate characterization of habitable planets.

Abstract

The next generation ground-based extremely large telescopes (ELTs) present incredible opportunities to discover and characterize diverse planetary systems, even potentially habitable worlds. Adaptive-optics assisted thermal-IR (3-14 micron) imaging is a powerful tool to study exoplanets with extant 6-12 meter telescopes. ELTs have the spatial resolution and sensitivity that offer an unparalleled expansion of the available discovery space. AO-assisted thermal-IR instruments on ELTs will be superior to JWST for high contrast imaging in the thermal-IR, and complementary to high contrast observations at shorter wavelengths, in space or with second-generation extreme AO instruments. With appropriate investments in instrumentation and pre-cursor observations, thermal-IR equipped ELTs could image the first terrestrial and super-earth planets around nearby stars, opening the door to characterization of potentially habitable planets from the ground and space.