The Planet Formation Imager (PFI) project aims to provide a strong scientific vision for ground-based optical astronomy beyond the upcoming generation of Extremely Large Telescopes. We make the case that a breakthrough in angular resolution imaging capabilities is required in order to unravel the processes involved in planet formation. PFI will be optimised to provide a complete census of the protoplanet population at all stellocentric radii and over the age range from 0.1 to similar to 100 Myr. Within this age period, planetary systems undergo dramatic changes and the final architecture of planetary systems is determined. Our goal is to study the planetary birth on the natural spatial scale where the material is assembled, which is the "Hill Sphere" of the forming planet, and to characterise the protoplanetary cores by measuring their masses and physical properties. Our science working group has investigated the observational characteristics of these young protoplanets as well as the migration mechanisms that might alter the system architecture. We simulated the imprints that the planets leave in the disk and study how PFI could revolutionise areas ranging from exoplanet to extragalactic science. In this contribution we outline the key science drivers of PFI and discuss the requirements that will guide the technology choices, the site selection, and potential science/technology tradeoffs.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:arizona.edu/oai:arizona.openrepository.com:10150/622530 |
| Date | 04 August 2016 |
| Creators | Kraus, Stefan, Monnier, John D., Ireland, Michael J., Duchêne, Gaspard, Espaillat, Catherine, Hönig, Sebastian, Juhasz, Attila, Mordasini, Chris, Olofsson, Johan, Paladini, Claudia, Stassun, Keivan, Turner, Neal, Vasisht, Gautam, Harries, Tim J., Bate, Matthew R., Gonzalez, Jean-François, Matter, Alexis, Zhu, Zhaohuan, Panic, Olja, Regaly, Zsolt, Morbidelli, Alessandro, Meru, Farzana, Wolf, Sebastian, Ilee, John, Berger, Jean-Philippe, Zhao, Ming, Kral, Quentin, Morlok, Andreas, Bonsor, Amy, Ciardi, David, Kane, Stephen R., Kratter, Kaitlin, Laughlin, Greg, Pepper, Joshua, Raymond, Sean, Labadie, Lucas, Nelson, Richard P., Weigelt, Gerd, ten Brummelaar, Theo, Pierens, Arnaud, Oudmaijer, Rene, Kley, Wilhelm, Pope, Benjamin, Jensen, Eric L. N., Bayo, Amelia, Smith, Michael, Boyajian, Tabetha, Quiroga-Nuñez, Luis Henry, Millan-Gabet, Rafael, Chiavassa, Andrea, Gallenne, Alexandre, Reynolds, Mark, de Wit, Willem-Jan, Wittkowski, Markus, Millour, Florentin, Gandhi, Poshak, Ramos Almeida, Cristina, Alonso Herrero, Almudena, Packham, Chris, Kishimoto, Makoto, Tristram, Konrad R. W., Pott, Jörg-Uwe, Surdej, Jean, Buscher, David, Haniff, Chris, Lacour, Sylvestre, Petrov, Romain, Ridgway, Steve, Tuthill, Peter, van Belle, Gerard, Armitage, Phil, Baruteau, Clement, Benisty, Myriam, Bitsch, Bertram, Paardekooper, Sijme-Jan, Pinte, Christophe, Masset, Frederic, Rosotti, Giovanni |
| Contributors | Univ Arizona, Univ. of Exeter (United Kingdom), Univ. of Michigan (United States), Australian National Univ. (Australia), Univ. of California, Berkeley (United States), Boston Univ. (United States), Univ. of Southampton (United Kingdom), Institute of Astronomy (United Kingdom), Univ. of Bern (Switzerland), Instituto de Fisica y Astronomia Valpariaso (Chile), Univ. Libre de Bruxelles (Belgium), Vanderbilt Univ. (United States), Jet Propulsion Lab. (United States), Jet Propulsion Lab. (United States), Univ. of Exeter (United Kingdom), Univ. of Exeter (United Kingdom), Univ. Lyon, Univ. Lyon 1, CNRS, Ctr. de Recherche Astrophysique de Lyon (France), Univ. of Nice-Sophia Antipolis, Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur (France), Princeton Univ. (United States), Institute of Astronomy (United Kingdom), Konkoly Observatory (Hungary), Univ. of Nice-Sophia Antipolis, Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur (France), Institute of Astronomy (United Kingdom), Univ. of Kiel (Germany), Institute of Astronomy (United Kingdom), European Southern Observatory (Germany), Pennsylvania State Univ. (United States), Institute of Astronomy (United Kingdom), Institut für Planetologie Münster (Germany), Institute of Astronomy (United Kingdom), NASA Exoplanet Science Institute (United States), San Francisco State Univ. (United States), Univ. of Arizona (United States), Yale Univ. (United States), Lehigh Univ. (United States), Lab. d'Astrophysique de Bordeaux (France), Univ. of Cologne (Germany), Queen Mary Univ. of London (United Kingdom), Max Planck Institute for Radioastronomy (Germany), Georgia State Univ. (United States), Lab. d'Astrophysique de Bordeaux (France), Univ. of Leeds (United Kingdom), Univ. of Tübingen (Germany), Univ. of Oxford (United Kingdom), Swarthmore College (United States), Univ. of Bern (Switzerland), Kent Univ. (United Kingdom), Yale Univ. (United States), Leiden Univ. (Netherlands), NASA Exoplanet Science Institute (United States), Univ. of Nice-Sophia Antipolis, Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur (France), European Southern Observatory (Chile), Univ. of Michigan (United States), European Southern Observatory (Chile), European Southern Observatory (Germany), Univ. of Nice-Sophia Antipolis, Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur (France), Univ. of Southampton (United Kingdom), Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (Spain), Univ. of Santander, Univ. of Madrid (Spain), Univ. of Texas, San Antonio (United States), Kyoto Sangyo Univ. (Japan), European Southern Observatory (Chile), MPIA (Germany), Univ. of Liege (Belgium), Institute of Astronomy (United Kingdom), Institute of Astronomy (United Kingdom), Observatoire de Paris (France), Univ. of Nice-Sophia Antipolis, Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur (France), National Optical Astronomy Observatory (United States), Sydney Univ. (Australia), Lowell Observatory (United States), Univ. of Colorado (United States), Institut de Recherche en Astrophysique et Planétologie, CNRS, Univ. de Toulouse (France), Institut de Planétologie et d'Astrophysique de Grenoble, Grenoble Univ. Alpes, CNRS (France), Lund Observatory (Sweden), Queen Mary Univ. of London (United Kingdom), Institut de Planétologie et d'Astrophysique de Grenoble, Grenoble Univ. Alpes, CNRS (France), Univ. Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (Mexico), Institute of Astronomy (United Kingdom) |
| Publisher | SPIE-INT SOC OPTICAL ENGINEERING |
| Source Sets | University of Arizona |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Article |
| Rights | © 2016 SPIE |
| Relation | http://proceedings.spiedigitallibrary.org/proceeding.aspx?doi=10.1117/12.2231067 |
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