HR: 11:50h
AN: SA52A-07 INVITED     [Abstracts]
TI: The Search for Earth-like Planets With TPF-C
AU: * Traub, W A
EM: wtraub@jpl.nasa.gov
AF: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, M/S 301-451 4800 Oak Grove Dr, Pasadena, CA 91109 United States
AU: Kasting, J
EM: kasting@geosc.psu.edu
AF: Penn State University, 525 Davey Laboratory, University Park, PA 16802 United States
AB: The Terrestrial Planet Finder Coronagraph (TPF-C) is a major NASA mission, planned for launch around 2015, designed to detect Earth-like planets around nearby stars, to characterize them in terms of atmospheric and surface constituents, and to search for signs of life on these planets. TPF-C will detect extrasolar planets using visible- and near-infrared filter photometry. It will characterize those planets using low-resolution spectroscopy. Potentially detectable species include H2O, O2, O3, CH4, CO2, Rayleigh scattering, and the "red-edge" signature of chlorophyll in the leaves of land plants. The mission is planned around a telescope with a large primary mirror (8m by 3.5 m), and focal-plane instrumentation comprising a coronagraph, a deformable-mirror speckle nuller, and a spectrograph. TPF-C's prospects for the expected number of detectable planets, the measurement of atmospheric and surface species, and the search for signs of life will be presented.
DE: 0343 Planetary atmospheres (5210, 5405, 5704)
DE: 5200 PLANETARY SCIENCES: ASTROBIOLOGY
DE: 5205 Formation of stars and planets
DE: 5210 Planetary atmospheres, clouds, and hazes (0343)
DE: 5215 Origin of life
SC: SPA-Aeronomy [SA]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005