The ARIEL mission reference sample

Tiziano Zingales,Subhajit Sarkar,Jérémy Leconte,Giovanna Tinetti,Ignazio Pillitteri,Giuseppina Micela

doi:10.1007/s10686-018-9572-7

Abstract

The ARIEL (Atmospheric Remote-sensing Exoplanet Large-survey) mission concept is one of the three M4 mission candidates selected by the European Space Agency (ESA) for a Phase A study, competing for a launch in 2026. ARIEL has been designed to study the physical and chemical properties of a large and diverse sample of exoplanets and, through those, understand how planets form and evolve in our galaxy. Here we describe the assumptions made to estimate an optimal sample of exoplanets – including already known exoplanets and expected ones yet to be discovered – observable by ARIEL and define a realistic mission scenario. To achieve the mission objectives, the sample should include gaseous and rocky planets with a range of temperatures around stars of different spectral type and metallicity. The current ARIEL design enables the observation of ∼1000 planets, covering a broad range of planetary and stellar parameters, during its four year mission lifetime. This nominal list of planets is expected to evolve over the years depending on the new exoplanet discoveries.

Highlights

1.1 Mission overviewToday we know over 3700 exoplanets of which more than one third are transiting
The ARIEL (Atmospheric Remote-sensing Exoplanet Large-survey) mission concept is one of the three M4 mission candidates selected by the European Space Agency (ESA) for a Phase A study, competing for a launch in 2026
ARIEL (Atmospheric Remote-sensing Exoplanet Large-survey) is one of the three candidate missions selected by the European Space Agency (ESA) for its medium-class science mission due for launch in 2026

Summary

Introduction

1.1 Mission overviewToday we know over 3700 exoplanets of which more than one third are transiting (http://exoplanets.eu/). The number of known exoplanets is expected to increase in the decade thanks to current and future space missions (K2, GAIA, TESS, CHEOPS, PLATO) and a long list of ground-based surveys (e.g. HAT-NET, HARPS, WASP, MEarth, NGTS, TRAPPIST, Espresso, Carmenes). These facilities are expected to detect thousands of new transiting exoplanets. The analysis of ARIEL spectra and photometric data will allow to extract the chemical fingerprints of gases and condensates in the planets’ atmospheres, including the elemental composition for the most favorable targets It will enable the study of thermal and scattering properties of the atmosphere as the planet orbit around the star

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion