CHES: a space-borne astrometric mission for the detection of habitable planets of the nearby solar-type stars

Abstract

The Closeby Habitable Exoplanet Survey (CHES) mission is proposed to discover habitable-zone Earth-like planets of the nearby solar-type stars ($\sim 10\mathrm{pc}$ away from our solar system) via micro-arcsecond relative astrometry. The major scientific objectives of CHES are: to search for Earth Twins or terrestrial planets in habitable zones orbiting 100 FGK nearby stars; further to conduct a comprehensive survey and extensively characterize the nearby planetary systems. The primary payload is a high-quality, low-distortion, high-stability telescope. The optical subsystem is a coaxial three-mirror anastigmat (TMA) with a $1.2\mathrm{m}$-aperture, $0.44^{\circ }\times 0.44^{\circ }$ field of view and $500\mathrm{nm}-900\mathrm{nm}$ working waveband. The camera focal plane is composed of 81 MOSAIC scientific CMOS detectors each with $4\mathrm{K}\times 4\mathrm{K}$ pixels. The heterodyne laser interferometric calibration technology is employed to ensure micro-arcsecond level (1 $\mu$as) relative astrometry precision to meet the requirements for detection of Earth-like planets. CHES satellite operates at the Sun-Earth L2 point and observes the entire target stars for 5 years. CHES will offer the first direct measurements of true masses and inclinations of Earth Twins and super-Earths orbiting our neighbor stars based on micro-arcsecond astrometry from space. This will definitely enhance our understanding of the formation of diverse nearby planetary systems and the emergence of other worlds for solar-type stars, and finally to reflect the evolution of our own solar system.

39 pages, 37 figures, Invited Review, accepted to Research in Astronomy and Astrophysics

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• Extremely Inclined Orbit of S-type Planet $\gamma$ Cep Ab Induced by Eccentric Kozai-Lidov Mechanism
• Evolution of the Planetary Obliquity: The Eccentric Kozai-Lidov Mechanism Coupled with Tide
• The Tianlin Mission: a 6m UV/Opt/IR space telescope to explore the habitable worlds and the universe
• Evolving morphology of resolved stellar Einstein rings
• The Potential of Detecting Nearby Terrestrial Planets in the HZ with Different Methods
• L 363-38 b: a planet newly discovered with ESPRESSO orbiting a nearby M dwarf star
• Simulating the Escaping Atmosphere of GJ 436 b with Two-fluid Magnetohydrodynamic Models
• Inferring hemispheric asymmetries of stellar active regions through the information content of astrometric signals
• A Cool Earth-sized Planet Candidate Transiting a Tenth Magnitude K-dwarf From K2
• Direct Imaging for the Debris Disk around $\epsilon$ Eridani with the Cool-Planet Imaging Coronagraph
• A Dataset for Exploring Stellar Activity in Astrometric Measurements from SDO Images of the Sun
• Astrometric exoplanet detection survives solar-like stellar contamination