![]() ![]() Prior to the launch of the Kepler telescope in 2009, radial velocity surveys were the dominant method for discovering new exoplanetary systems, with over 400 systems discovered between 19 ( ). The collection of such systems will provide a valuable sample for follow-up programs to characterize their atmospheres through direct imaging. Such surveys, conducted with the optical and infrared echelle spectrometers being built for the TMT, have the potential to complete the census of Earth-mass planets in our stellar neighborhood. With echelle spectrometers approaching the 0.1 m/s radial velocity (RV) measurement precision threshold needed to detect habitable Earth mass planets around Sun-like stars, the continuation of Doppler surveys on state-of-the-art telescopes is imperative. Dashed lines show the typical detectable mass for a given level of Doppler precision, assuming edge-on circular orbits around a solar-type star. Known extrasolar planets and Doppler sensitivity. The TMT’s instrumentation will generate an incredible number of additional discoveries, will drastically expand the kinds of planets we can detect, will provide a rich understanding of these planets’ physical properties, and will potentially yield the first detections of habitable rocky planets. high-precision Doppler measurements, high-precision space-based photometry, and advanced adaptive optics – have driven a large number of exoplanet discoveries. The Thirty Meter Telescope will provide an enormous advance in our ability to identify and characterize extrasolar planets. 2013b), we have yet to conclusively identify a true (potentially habitable) Earth twin around a Sun-like star, let alone determine their frequency. While we have detected both rocky planets and planets located on Earth-like orbits (e.g. density, atmospheric/bulk composition) is much weaker, and is restricted to a handful of favorable cases. Furthermore, our knowledge about the physical properties of exoplanets (e.g. massive planets beyond a few AU, or planets with radii smaller than Earth. However, other classes of planetary systems are almost entirely unexplored – e.g. ![]() ![]() We have good constraints on the (high) frequency of planets larger than the Earth with orbital periods less than 100 days and on (the dearth of) the widest-separation, most massive planets (e.g. However, nearby exoplanets detected by two main methods – Doppler radial velocimetry and transit photometry, and distant exoplanets discovered by microlensing and direct detection, have revealed entirely new classes of planets such as hot Jupiters, Super-Earths, and wide-separation super-jovian planets.Īlthough extrasolar planets discovered thus far have provided important clues about the context within which the Earth and other solar system planets fit, our knowledge of the overall census remains highly incomplete. mass, orbital separation) to those in our own solar system. Some exoplanets have similar properties (i.e. 2013a and references therein).Įxtrasolar planets are a diverse population, spanning a wide range in mass and orbital separation. Statistical studies of exoplanets suggest that planet formation is common, occurring around about half of nearby Sun-like stars (e.g. Extrasolar planets have been found orbiting the youngest stars to post-main sequence stars and around subsolar to intermediate-mass stars (Kraus & Ireland 2012 Currie et al. Through grants to the University of California and Caltech, we are funding the design and construction of the observatory.In the past few decades, our inventory of known planets has grown from just the eight in our solar system to over several thousand extrasolar planets detected around nearby stars through a variety of techniques (e.g. Our grant helped to improve the instrumentation for adaptive optics and years later that technology made the design of the Thirty Meter Telescope possible. Adaptive optics sharpen the vision of ground-based telescopes by removing the blurring effects of turbulence in the Earth's atmosphere. In 2002, the first grant from our Science Program went to the University of California, Santa Cruz for the creation of the Adaptive Optics Laboratory. Our commitment to improve the quality of astronomical instrumentation goes back to the early days of the foundation. It will advance the world's knowledge across a vast span of time from the first galaxies that formed in the Universe to the planets that orbit nearby stars in our own Milky Way galaxy that might harbor life. The Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) is a powerful tool to accelerate scientific understanding of the Universe of all humankind. Unlocking mysteries about the nature of the universe Symbiosis in Aquatic Systems Initiative.Experimental Physics Investigators Initiative.Emergent Phenomena in Quantum Systems Initiative. ![]()
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