EXO-IT: Il Portale dedicato alla ricerca sui
pianeti extrasolari in Italia
Pagano1 I., Micela2 G., Gelardi2 C.
1
INAF-Osservatorio Astrofisico di Catania; 2 INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Palermo
Il sito www.oact.inaf.it/exoit presenta le iniziative e i progetti italiani nel campo della ricerca sugli esopianeti e si propone di
pubblicare tutte le notizie di interesse per la comunità scientifica italiana. In particolare raccoglie pubblicazioni, bandi,
annunci e nuovi risultati. I contenuti del sito sono aggiornati continuamente, grazie anche ai contributi degli utenti.
L’iniziativa è volta ad aggregare la comunità e sviluppare le sinergie tra i diversi progetti.
CoRoT is dedicated to ultra-high precision, wide-field,
relative stellar photometry, for very long continuous
observing runs on the same field of view. It has two main
scientific programs working simultaneously on adjacent
regions of the sky: asteroseismology and search for
extrasolar planets.
http://smsc.cnes.fr/COROT
Direct imaging surveys
INAF scientists contribute to an ongoing ESO Large
Program using NACO at VLT. This project aims at
providing an homogeneous statistically significant
study of the occurence of Extrasolar Giant Planets
and Brown Dwarfs in 5-500AU orbit around young,
nearby stars.
HARPS-N is a high-precision spectrograph. It will be located in
the Northern hemisphere on the INAF’s TNG. The immediate
scientific goal of HARPS-N is the observation of the Kepler
transiting-planet candidates for the characterization and discovery
of terrestrial planets by combining transits and Doppler
measurements.
https://plone2.unige.ch/HARPS-N
SIMPLE: A High Resolution Near-infrared Spectrograph for the E-ELT
SIMPLE is will tackle outstanding astrophysical questions at:
1) the detection and characterization of exo-planet
atmospheres; 2) the early nucleosynthesis and chemical
enrichment in the inner Galaxy; 3) the chemical and dust
enrichment of proto-galaxies in the early Universe at the
reionization epoch.
http://simple.bo.astro.it/
EChO (Exoplanet CHaracterization Observatory) is a mission
concept selected by ESA for an Assessment Study. It will
characterize spectroscopically the atmospheres of giant and
terrestrial exoplanets transiting their parent star (with the
combined light technique). ECHO can characterize also
planets in the habitable zone of late type stars.
http://thesis.iap.fr/
INAF approved in 2009 a two-yearproject of national relevance
(PRIN-INAF-2008) dedicated to the study of the environmental
effects in the formation and evolution of planets beyond our
Solar System. Four teams based at different INAF institutions are
involved in the project
GIANO is an optimized NIR spectrograph which can yield, in a single
exposure, 0.9-2.5 micron spectra with a very high throughput throughout the
whole spectral range. This project is part of the Second Generation
Instrumentation Plan of the Telescopio Nazionale
Galileo (TNG).
http://www.bo.astro.it/giano/
SPICES: Spectro-Polarimetric Imaging and Characterization of Exoplanetary Systems
It is a 5 years M-class mission proposed in response to
the M3 ESA call to image and to characterize extrasolar
planets and circumstellar disks in the visible (450900nm). http://luth7.obspm.fr/SPICES/SPICES.html
Nearby Earth Astrometric Telescope (NEAT) is a proposal for a space mission
whose main objective is the detection and characterization of planetary systems
around our closest “Sun-like” neighbors. NEAT main program will consist in
observing ~200 nearest F, G and K stars, looking for planets like ours.
For some of these stars, NEAT will
even be able to detect planets smaller
than the Earth.
http://neat.obs.ujf-grenoble.fr/NEAT.html
PLAnetary Transits
and Oscillations of
stars
PLATO is one of the three medium class (M class)
mission selected for definition study in the framework
of the ESA Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 program. The
scientific goal of PLATO is the discovery and study of
extrasolar planetary systems by means of planetary
transits detection down to earth mass planet in
habitable zone around solar type stars.
www.plato-mission.eu
Editorial Committee:
Silvano Desidera (INAF-OAPD), Antonino F. Lanza (INAF-OACT), Giusi Micela
(INAF-OAPA), Paolo Molaro (INAF-OATS), Livia Origlia (INAF-OAB), Isabella
Pagano (INAF-OACT), Giampaolo Piotto (Univ.PD), Ennio Poretti (INAF - OAB),
Roberto Ragazzoni (INAF-OAPD), Alessandro Sozzetti (INAF-OAT)
EPICS is a proposed instrument for the Extremely Large
Telescopes (ELTs)
dedicated
to the detection
and characterization of exoplanets by direct imaging a
nd spectroscopy. It will dramatically enlarge the discovery
space towards older giant planets seen in reflected light
and ultimately even a small number of rocky planets.
http://www.eso.org/sci/facilities/eelt/
SPHERE is a 2nd generation instrument for VLT aimed to direct detection and
spectral characterization of extrasolar planets. SPHERE includes a powerful
extreme adaptive optics system (SAXO), various coronagraphs, an infrared
differential imaging camera (IRDIS), an
infrared integral field spectrograph (IFS) and
a visible differential polarimeter (ZIMPOL).
http://www.eso.org/sci/facilities/develop/in
struments/sphere/
CODEX (COsmic Dynamics and EXo-earth experiment) is an
optical, very stable, high spectral resolution instrument
proposed for the European ELT. One of the main aim of CODEX
is the detection of Earth twins in the Habitable Zone of solartype stars.
http://www.iac.es/proyecto/codex/
ESPRESSO is characterized by high mechanical,
thermal and spectroscopic stability and the radialvelocity precision. The search for rocky-planets in
the habitable zone around solar-type stars is one of
Echelle SPectrograph for
Rocky Exoplanet and Stable the main scientific drivers of the project.
http://espresso.astro.up.pt/index.php
Spectroscopic Observations
GAIA will measure astrometrically actual masses
and orbital parameters for thousands of giant
planets, and will determine the degree of
coplanarity in possibly hundreds of multiple-planet
systems. It will carry out crucial tests of theoretical
models of gas giant planet formation and migration.
http://www.rssd.esa.int/index.php?project=GAIA&page=index
TASTE (The Asiago Search for Transit Timing variations of
Exoplanets) is collecting high-precision, short-cadence light
curves for a selected sample of transits by using imaging
differential photometry at the Asiago 1.82m telescope. The
primary aim of the project is to detect low-mass planets and
moons with two indirect techniques: the Transit Timing
Variation and the Transit Duration Variation.