The utility of astrometry as a precursor to direct detection

摘要

A recent source of debate in the exoplanet community has been the question of whether an astrometry 'precursor' mission is required in order for a direct detection mission to succeed. Using an existing framework for the evaluation of direct detection missions, we address this question by incorporating data which may be generated by an astrometry mission. We present results for cases where the astrometry mission is able to resolve which target stars have planets, where it is able to fit a subset of the orbital parameters of discovered planets, and where the astrometric data is good enough to fit complete orbits. Each of these is evaluated assuming perfect performance on the part of the astrometric instrument, and with varying levels of error.