The ARIEL mission reference sample

Tiziano Zingales (1) , Giovanna Tinetti (1) , Ignazio Pillitteri (2) , J. Leconte (3) , Giuseppina Micela (2) , Subhajit Sarkar (4)

1 UCL - University College of London [London]
2 OAPa - INAF - Osservatorio Astronomico di Palermo
3 ECLIPSE 2018
4 Cardiff University

The main purpose of this paper is to identify an optimal list of targets observable by ARIEL (Atmospheric Remote-sensing Exoplanet Largesurvey), one of the three European Space Agency M4 mission candidates competing for a launch in 2026. Here we describe the assumptions made to estimate an optimal sample of exoplanets - including both the already known exoplanets and the "expected" ones yet to be discovered - observable by ARIEL and define a realistic mission scenario. The current ARIEL design enables the observation of ~1000 planets during its four year mission lifetime. This nominal list of planets is expected to evolve over the years depending on the new exoplanet discoveries.

Domaines: Planétologie et astrophysique de la terre [astro-ph.EP]

Tiziano Zingales, Giovanna Tinetti, Ignazio Pillitteri, J. Leconte, Giuseppina Micela, et al.. The ARIEL mission reference sample. Experimental Astronomy, 2018, pp.Online First 2018. ⟨10.1007/s10686-018-9572-7⟩. ⟨hal-01730265⟩