KEOPS: towards exo-Earths from Dome C of Antarctica

F. Vakili (1) , E. Aristidi (1) , F. X. Schmider (2) , S. Jankov (1) , E. Fossat (1) , L. Abe (2) , A. Domiciano (1) , A. Belu (1) , A. Agabi (3) , J.-B. Daban (2) , S. Robbe-Dubois (1) , R. Petrov (1) , J. Vernin (3) , A. Ziad (1) , B. Lopez (4)

1 LUAN - Laboratoire Universitaire d'Astrophysique de Nice
2 FIZEAU - Laboratoire Hippolyte Fizeau
3 LAGRANGE - Joseph Louis LAGRANGE
4 OCA - Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur

This paper describes a coronagraphic nulling interferometer called KEOPS (Kiloparsec Explorer for Optical Planet Search) to be placed on the Dome C plateau of Antarctica. KEOPS is an interferometric array of 39 1m 2m telescopes spread over kilometric baselines and operated in the thermal IR region. It could search and characterize all potential exoEarths within the 1 kpc diameter region observable from Dome C. We argue that even in the very difficult operation conditions of Antarctica, such a facility can compete at a much lower cost with the non-zero risk space missions, both for for ExPNs search and their spectroscopic characterization plus sub-mas snap-shot imaging of galactic and extra-galactic compact sources.

Domaines: Astrophysique [astro-ph]

F. Vakili, E. Aristidi, F. X. Schmider, S. Jankov, E. Fossat, et al.. KEOPS: towards exo-Earths from Dome C of Antarctica. Dome C Astronomy and Astrophysics Meeting, Jun 2004, Toulouse, France. pp.211-217, ⟨10.1051/eas:2005033⟩. ⟨hal-02480363⟩