EXO-ZODI MODELING FOR THE LARGE BINOCULAR TELESCOPE INTERFEROMETER

Journal Article · Sun Feb 01 00:00:00 EST 2015 · Astrophysical Journal, Supplement Series

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0067-0049/216/2/23· OSTI ID:22340092

Kennedy, Grant M.; Wyatt, Mark C.; Panić, Olja; Shannon, Andrew ^[1]; Bailey, Vanessa; Defrère, Denis; Hinz, Philip M.; Rieke, George H.; Skemer, Andrew J.; Su, Katherine Y. L. ^[2]; Bryden, Geoffrey; Mennesson, Bertrand; Morales, Farisa; Serabyn, Eugene ^[3]; Danchi, William C.; Roberge, Aki; Stapelfeldt, Karl R. ^[4]; Haniff, Chris ^[5]; Lebreton, Jérémy ^[6]; Millan-Gabet, Rafael ^[7] ; others, and

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1. Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0HA (United Kingdom)
2. Steward Observatory, University of Arizona, 933 North Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85721 (United States)
3. Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109 (United States)
4. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Exoplanets and Stellar Astrophysics, Code 667, Greenbelt, MD 20771 (United States)
5. Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, JJ Thomson Avenue, Cambridge CB3 0HE (United Kingdom)
6. Infrared Processing and Analysis Center, MS 100-22, California Institute of Technology, 770 South Wilson Avenue, Pasadena, CA 91125 (United States)
7. NASA Exoplanet Science Institute, California Institute of Technology, 770 South Wilson Avenue, Pasadena, CA 91125 (United States)

Habitable zone dust levels are a key unknown that must be understood to ensure the success of future space missions to image Earth analogs around nearby stars. Current detection limits are several orders of magnitude above the level of the solar system's zodiacal cloud, so characterization of the brightness distribution of exo-zodi down to much fainter levels is needed. To this end, the Large Binocular Telescope Interferometer (LBTI) will detect thermal emission from habitable zone exo-zodi a few times brighter than solar system levels. Here we present a modeling framework for interpreting LBTI observations, which yields dust levels from detections and upper limits that are then converted into predictions and upper limits for the scattered light surface brightness. We apply this model to the HOSTS survey sample of nearby stars; assuming a null depth uncertainty of 10{sup –4} the LBTI will be sensitive to dust a few times above the solar system level around Sun-like stars, and to even lower dust levels for more massive stars.

• OSTI ID: 22340092
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Supplement Series, Vol. 216, Issue 2; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0067-0049
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTROPHYSICS
COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
BRIGHTNESS
COSMIC DUST
IMAGES
INTERFEROMETERS
SENSITIVITY
SIMULATION
SOLAR SYSTEM
SUN
TELESCOPES
VISIBLE RADIATION