On the potential of extrasolar planet transit surveys

Abstract

We analyse the respective benefits and drawbacks of ground-based and space-based transit surveys for extrasolar planets. Based on simple but realistic assumptions about the fraction of lower main sequence stars harboring telluric and giant planets within the outer limit of the habitable zone, we predict the harvests of fictitious surveys with three existing wide field optical and near-IR cameras: the CFHT-Megacam, SUBARU-Suprime and VISTA-IR. An additional promising instrument is considered, VISTA-Vis, currently under development. The results are compared with the harvests predicted under exactly the same assumptions, for the space missions COROT and KEPLER. We show that ground-based wide field surveys may discover more giant planets than space missions. However, space surveys seem to constitute the best strategy to search for telluric planets. In this respect, the KEPLER mission appears 50 times more efficient than any of the ground--based surveys considered here. KEPLER might even discover telluric planets in the habitable zone of their host star.

accepted in AA

References in corpus (13)

• Spectroscopic [Fe/H] for 98 extra-solar planet-host stars: Exploring the probability of planet formation
• TrES-1: The Transiting Planet of a Bright K0V Star
• Two new "very hot Jupiters" among the OGLE transiting candidates
• The "missing link": a 4-day period transiting exoplanet around OGLE-TR-111
• Doppler follow-up of OGLE transiting companions in the Galactic bulge
• On the Period Distribution of Close-In Extrasolar Giant Planets
• Exoplanet detection capability of the COROT space mission
• The Challenge of Wide-Field Transit Surveys: The Case of GSC 01944-02289
• High-resolution spectroscopic follow-up of OGLE planetary transit candidates in the Galactic bulge: two possible Jupiter-mass planets and two blends
• Limits on the infrared photometric monitoring of brown dwarfs
• The CORALIE survey for southern extra-solar planets. X. A Hot Jupiter orbiting HD73256
• The EXPLORE Project I: A Deep Search for Transiting Extrasolar Planets
• The Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment. Planetary and Low-Luminosity Object Transits in the Fields of Galactic Disk. Results of the 2003 OGLE Observing Campaigns

Cited by in corpus (8)

• The effect of red noise on planetary transit detection
• Design Considerations for a Ground-based Transit Search for Habitable Planets Orbiting M dwarfs
• Predicting the Yields of Photometric Surveys for Transiting Extrasolar Planets
• New Worlds on the Horizon: Earth-Sized Planets Close to Other Stars
• The Effect of Lunar-like Satellites on the Orbital Infrared Light Curves of Earth-analog Planets
• Interpreting and predicting the yield of transit surveys: Giant planets in the OGLE fields
• Spectral types of planetary host star candidates from OGLE III
• Predicting the Yields of Photometric Surveys for Transiting Planets