Stellar Aspects of Habitability - Characterizing Target Stars for Terrestrial Planet-Finding Missions
Abstract
We present and discuss the criteria for selecting potential target stars suitable for the search for Earth-like planets, with a special emphasis on the stellar aspects of habitability. Missions that search for terrestrial exoplanets will explore the presence and habitability of Earth-like exoplanets around several hundred nearby stars, mainly F, G, K, and M stars. The evaluation of the list of potential target systems is essential in order to develop mission concepts for a search for terrestrial exoplanets. Using the Darwin All Sky Star Catalogue (DASSC), we discuss the selection criteria, configuration-dependent subcatalogues, and the implication of stellar activity for habitability.
- Publication:
-
Astrobiology
- Pub Date:
- January 2010
- DOI:
- 10.1089/ast.2009.0367
- arXiv:
- arXiv:0906.0378
- Bibcode:
- 2010AsBio..10..103K
- Keywords:
-
- Astrophysics - Earth and Planetary Astrophysics;
- Astrophysics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
- E-Print:
- 14 pages, 4 figures, Astrobiology, 10, 1,2010