Introduction to Terrestrial Exoplanets

The objective is the detection and characterization of terrestrial exoplanets up to the habitable zone of solar-type stars by means of their transit signature in front of a very large sample of bright stars.

A major goal is the atmospheric characterization of dozens of small, terrestrial exoplanets in order to search for signatures in their atmospheres that indicate biological activity, assess their ability to provide conditions for life as we know it, and investigate their expected atmospheric diversity.

The PLATO mission aims at detecting and characterizing extrasolar planetary systems, including terrestrial exoplanets around bright solar-type stars in the habitable zone.

Our results should be useful in future direct imaging of terrestrial exoplanets.

1 The PLATO mission aims at detecting and characterizing extrasolar planetary systems, including terrestrial exoplanets around bright solar-type stars in the habitable zone.

Coronal mass ejections (CMEs), spawned by magnetically active, superflare-triggering dwarf stars, pose a direct threat to the habitability of terrestrial exoplanets, as they can deprive them of their atmospheres.

Terrestrial exoplanets, however, show a startling diversity compared to our local experience.

Terrestrial exoplanets likely form initial atmospheres through outgassing during and after accretion, although there is currently no first-principles understanding of how to connect a planet’s bulk composition to its early atmospheric properties.

These observations, complemented by the calculation of the binary MgO–FeO phase diagram, reveal complex stratification and rheology inside large terrestrial exoplanets.

The era of atmospheric characterization of terrestrial exoplanets is just around the corner.

To fully characterize the atmospheres, or lack thereof, of terrestrial exoplanets, we must include the high-energy environments provided by their host stars.

Bioverse combines existing knowledge of exoplanet statistics with a survey simulation and hypothesis testing framework to determine whether proposed space-based direct imaging and transit-spectroscopy surveys will be capable of detecting various hypothetical statistical relationships between the properties of terrestrial exoplanets.

Although MEMS DMs have over a decade of heritage on ground-based telescopes and in in-air testbeds around the globe, they have not been tested in vacuum down to the ∼10−10 contrast level needed to image terrestrial exoplanets.

To fully characterize the atmospheres, or lack thereof, of terrestrial exoplanets, we must include the high-energy environments provided by their host stars.