WFIRST-AFTA coronagraph science yield modeling with EXOSIMS

Savransky, Dmitry; Garrett, Daniel

doi:10.1117/1.jatis.2.1.011006

Cited by 40 publications

(49 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…Stark et al 2014). Savransky et al (2010), Greco & Burrows (2015), and Savransky & Garrett (2016) consider prospects for a blind search with the capabilities of WFIRST-CGI in mind. Studies like these have informed the selection of stars for the NASA Exoplanet Mission Stars Catalog, shown by the dashed black line histogram.…”

Section: Candidate Targets For Wfirst-cgimentioning

confidence: 99%

Prospects for Directly Imaging Young Giant Planets at Optical Wavelengths

Lacy

Burrows

2020

ApJ

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In this work, we investigate the properties of young giant planet spectra in the optical and suggest that future space-based direct imaging missions should be considering young planets as a valuable and informative science case. While young planets are dimmer in the optical than in the infrared, they can still be brighter in the optical than a mature planet of similar mass. Therefore, an instrument designed to characterize mature planets should also be suitable for high-precision photometric imaging and spectroscopy of young self-luminous planets in a wavelength range and at a contrast ratio not attainable from the ground. We identify known young self-luminous companions which are feasible targets for WFIRST-CGI and compute spectra for them, including a treatment of scattering and reflected light at optical wavelengths. Using these results, we highlight potentially diagnostic spectral features that will be present in the WFIRST-CGI wavelengths. Expanding to direct imaging missions beyond WFIRST-CGI, we also use evolutionary models across a grid of masses and planet-star separations as inputs to compute spectra of hypothetical objects, exploring when reflected light may contribute to a degree comparable to that of thermal emission from the residual heat of formation.

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Section: Candidate Targets For Wfirst-cgimentioning

confidence: 99%

Prospects for Directly Imaging Young Giant Planets at Optical Wavelengths

Lacy

Burrows

2020

ApJ

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“…As with GPI, we evaluated the minimum detectable power limit of WFIRST by using the detectable flux ratios. To sample a range of stars, we simulated the detectable flux ratio of several targets with the EXOSIMS library V1.35 (Savransky & Garrett 2016) as function of angular separation. Table 1 lists the arguments used in our simulations.…”

Section: Wfirst Overviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Model of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence with Coronagraphic Imaging

Vides

Macintosh

Binder

et al. 2019

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We present modeled detection limits of the Gemini Planet Imager (GPI) and the Wide-Field Infrared Space Telescope (WFIRST) to an optical and infrared laser which could be used by an extraterrestrial civilization to signal their presence. GPI and WFIRST could utilize a coronagraph to search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) in the present and future. We use archival data for GPI stars and simulated WFIRST observations to find the detectable flux ratio of a laser signal to residual scattered starlight around the target star. This flux ratio is then converted to detectable power as a function of distance from the parent star. For GPI, we assume a monochromatic laser wavelength of 1.55 µm and a wavelength of 575 nm for WFIRST. We assume the lasers are projected through a 10-m aperture, and that the intensity of the laser beam follows a Gaussian profile. Our analysis is performed on 6 stars with spectral types later than F within 20 pc (with an emphasis on solar analogs at different distances). The most notable result is the detection limit for τ Ceti, a G5V star with four known exoplanets, two of those within the habitable zone (HZ). The result shows that a 24 kW laser is detectable from τ Ceti from outside of the HZ with GPI and a 7.3 W laser is detectable from within τ Ceti's HZ by WFIRST.

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“…Provided IWAd > a min , c g monotonically decreases with stellar distance for fixed inner and outer working angles with downwards inflection. The yellow squares represent completeness calculated with the distributions described in Savransky & Garrett (2015). The dashed red line denotes a one-to-one relationship between c g and completeness.…”

Section: Target Selection Metricmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Simple Depth-of-Search Metric for Exoplanet Imaging Surveys

Garrett

Savransky

Macintosh

2017

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We present a procedure for calculating expected exoplanet imaging yields, which explicitly separates the effects of instrument performance from assumptions of planet distributions. This 'depth of search' approach allows for fast recalculation of yield values for variations in instrument parameters. We also describe a new target star selection metric with no dependence on an assumed planet population that can be used as a proxy for single-visit completeness. This approach allows for the recovery of the total mission completeness via convolution of the depth of search grid with an equivalent grid of assumed occurrence rates and integration over the part of the grid representing the population of interest (e.g., Earth-like planets on habitable zone orbits, etc.). In this work, we discuss the practical details of calculating the depth of search and present results of such calculations for one design iteration of the WFIRST coronagraphs.Subject headings:

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WFIRST-AFTA coronagraph science yield modeling with EXOSIMS

Cited by 40 publications

References 42 publications

Prospects for Directly Imaging Young Giant Planets at Optical Wavelengths

Prospects for Directly Imaging Young Giant Planets at Optical Wavelengths

Model of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence with Coronagraphic Imaging

A Simple Depth-of-Search Metric for Exoplanet Imaging Surveys

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