Issue |
A&A
Volume 658, February 2022
|
|
---|---|---|
Article Number | A31 | |
Number of page(s) | 16 | |
Section | Planets and planetary systems | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202142256 | |
Published online | 27 January 2022 |
The PLATO field selection process
I. Identification and content of the long-pointing fields
1
INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova,
vicolo dell’Osservatorio 5,
35122
Padova,
Italy
e-mail: valerio.nascimbeni@inaf.it
2
Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia “Galileo Galilei”, Università degli Studi di Padova,
Vicolo dell’Osservatorio 3,
35122
Padova,
Italy
3
Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR), Institut für Optische Sensorsysteme,
Rutherfordstraße 2,
12489
Berlin-Adlershof,
Germany
4
INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma,
Via Frascati, 33,
00078
Monte Porzio Catone (RM),
Italy
5
SSDC-ASI,
Via del Politecnico, snc,
00133
Roma,
Italy
6
Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR), Institut für Planetenforschung,
Rutherfordstraße 2,
12489
Berlin-Adlershof,
Germany
7
Institute of Astronomy,
KU Leuven,
Celestijnenlaan 200D,
3001
Leuven,
Belgium
8
Department of Astrophysics, IMAPP, Radboud University Nijmegen,
6500
GL,
Nijmegen,
The Netherlands
9
Max Planck Institute for Astronomy,
Koenigstuhl 17,
69117
Heidelberg,
Germany
10
INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Palermo,
Piazza del Parlamento 1,
90134
Palermo,
Italy
11
Aix-Marseille Université, CNRS, CNES, Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Marseille, Technopôle de Marseille-Etoile,
38, rue Frédéric Joliot-Curie,
13388
Marseille cedex 13,
France
12
Max-Planck-Institut für Sonnensystemforschung,
Justus-von-Liebig-Weg 3,
37077
Göttingen,
Germany
13
Institut für Astrophysik, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen,
Friedrich-Hund-Platz 1,
37077
Göttingen,
Germany
14
Center for Space Science, NYUAD Institute, New York University Abu Dhabi,
Abu Dhabi,
UAE
15
LESIA, CNRS UMR 8109, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Université Denis Diderot, Observatoire de Paris,
92195
Meudon,
France
16
European Space Agency (ESA), European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC),
Keplerlaan 1,
2201
AZ
Noordwijk,
The Netherlands
17
Centro de Astrobiología (CSIC–INTA), Depto. de Astrofísica,
28692
Villanueva de la Cañada,
Madrid,
Spain
18
INAF – Osservatorio Astrofisico di Catania,
Via S. Sofia 78,
95123
Catania,
Italy
19
Department of Physics, University of Warwick,
Gibbet Hill Road,
Coventry
CV4 7AL,
UK
20
Centre for Exoplanets and Habitability, University of Warwick,
Gibbet Hill Road,
Coventry
CV4 7AL,
UK
21
Armagh Observatory & Planetarium,
College Hill,
Armagh,
BT61 9DG,
UK
22
Zentrum für Astronomie und Astrophysik, TU Berlin,
Hardenbergstraße 36,
10623
Berlin,
Germany
23
Institute of Geological Sciences, Freie Universität Berlin,
Malteserstraße 74-100,
12249
Berlin,
Germany
24
Observatoire de Genève, Université de Genève,
Chemin Pegasi 51,
1290
Sauverny,
Switzerland
Received:
19
September
2021
Accepted:
26
October
2021
PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations of stars is an ESA M-class satellite planned for launch by the end of 2026 and dedicated to the wide-field search of transiting planets around bright and nearby stars, with a strong focus on discovering habitable rocky planets hosted by solar-like stars. The choice of the fields to be pointed at is a crucial task since it has a direct impact on the scientific return of the mission. In this paper, we describe and discuss the formal requirements and the key scientific prioritization criteria that have to be taken into account in the Long-duration Observation Phase (LOP) field selection, and apply a quantitative metric to guide us in this complex optimization process. We identify two provisional LOP fields, one for each hemisphere (LOPS1 and LOPN1), and we discuss their properties and stellar content. While additional fine-tuning shall be applied to LOP selection before the definitive choice, which is set to be made two years before launch, we expect that their position will not move by more than a few degrees with respect to what is proposed in this paper.
Key words: catalogs / astronomical databases: miscellaneous / techniques: photometric / planetary systems / planets and satellites: detection / stars: fundamental parameters
© ESO 2022
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