Scientific Requirements on Space Interferometers
Proceedings of the European Interferometry Initiative Workshop organized in the context of the 20005 Joint European and National Astronomy Meeting "Distant Worlds"?
RSSD, ESTEC, Noordwijk, The Netherlands
RSSD, ESTEC, Noordwijk, The Netherlands
Abstract
In the context of the European Space Agency's new science implementation plan - Cosmic Vision 2015-2025, the search for Terrestrial Exoplanets forms a major part of one of the major themes. For a number of years, both ESA and NASA have been studying different technologies in order to design space missions that can search for and study the physical parameters of planets like our own, orbiting other stars. The ESA Darwin study is arguably the one in world which has progressed the furthest. This is probably the most ambitious space mission contemplated so far, but will result in a complete survey of single stars within a distance of 25pc. In this paper we present the context of the mission as well as the scientific case - both at top level and the detailed case which is broken down for actual implementation.