Determining What Makes a Planet Earth-like

确定是什么使行星与地球相似

• 批准号: RGPIN-2017-06055
• 负责人: Rowe, Jason
• 金额: $ 1.82万
• 依托单位: Bishop's University
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2020-01-01 至 2021-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=712021
• 关键词: Determining; What; Makes; Planet; Earth

The proposed program centers around the discovery and characterization of extrasolar planets, with a goal to find planets that may be similar to the Earth and to learn what properties make a planet Earth-like. Taking a big picture view, this program is one small step towards learning if we are alone in the Universe. Canadian scientists have played a key role in the discovery of the first planets around distant stars and Canada has made significant investments in future infrastructure to further Canada's strength in exoplanetary science. The first investment is a spectrograph built for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) that will launch in 2018. The spectrograph, named NIRISS has the ability to detect and characterization extrasolar planets that may be similar to the Earth. However, JWST needs to know where to look. The primary goal of the proposed program is to find, characterize and prioritize the extrasolar planets that are being discovered via the transit method. An exoplanet transit occurs when a exoplanet passes in front of its host star from our point-of-view. The transit makes the host star appear fainter as some light is blocked. The characteristics of the loss of light observed can be modeled to estimate the size and temperature of the planet. The requested funding will aid in finding and characterizing rare transiting events from millions of stars. The discovered planets will be priority targets for JWST in order to determine if other Earth-like planets exist in the Universe.

拟议的计划围绕太阳系外行星的发现和表征，目标是找到可能与地球相似的行星，并了解是什么属性使行星与地球相似。 从大的角度来看，这个程序是朝着学习我们是否在宇宙中是孤独的一小步。加拿大科学家在发现遥远恒星周围的第一批行星方面发挥了关键作用，加拿大对未来的基础设施进行了大量投资，以进一步加强加拿大在系外行星科学方面的实力。 第一笔投资是为詹姆斯韦伯太空望远镜（JWST）建造的光谱仪，该望远镜将于2018年发射。 这台光谱仪名为NIRISS，能够探测和描述可能与地球相似的太阳系外行星。 然而，JWST需要知道去哪里看。 该计划的主要目标是通过凌日法发现太阳系外行星，并确定其特征和优先顺序。 当一颗系外行星从我们的视角经过它的宿主星星的前面时，就会发生系外行星凌日。凌日使主星星星看起来更暗，因为一些光线被阻挡了。 观测到的光损失的特征可以被建模来估计行星的大小和温度。 申请的资金将有助于寻找和描述数百万颗恒星的罕见凌日事件。 发现的行星将是JWST的优先目标，以确定宇宙中是否存在其他类似地球的行星。