The influence of stellar activity on detecting Earth-like planets via nulling interferometry
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arXiv
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| Format: | Preprint |
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2025
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| _version_ | 1866908339664846848 |
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| author | Zhou, Rui-Si Liu, Hui-Gen Zhou, Li-Yong |
| author_facet | Zhou, Rui-Si Liu, Hui-Gen Zhou, Li-Yong |
| contents | The direct imaging of Earth-like planets in solar neighbors is challenging. Both transit and radial velocity (RV) methods suffer from noise due to stellar activity. By choosing a typical configuration of an X array interferometer, we used theoretical formulas to calculate the intrinsic Poisson noise and the noise of stellar activities. Assuming a fixed array with no rotation and ignoring other systematic and astrophysical noises, we considered a single active region on a stellar disk, including both spots and flares with different parameters, for instance, the position, size, and temperature of the active regions. Then we simulated the S/N of Earth-like planets in HZ around G dwarf stars (solar-like) and M dwarfs (Proxima-like), with different stellar activities in the mid-infrared (MIR) band ( 7-12 $μ$m). The noise attributed to stellar activity has much less influence than the Transit and RV method when detecting Earth-like planets around both G and M dwarfs. I.e. Stellar activity can hardly influence the detection of Earth-like planets around G dwarf stars. However, detecting Earth-like planets around M dwarfs, which are usually more active, can be significantly hindered. We also analyzed the uncertainty of the planet's location due to the deduced S/N. Consequently, we have determined the possibility of mistaking a planet in the HZ as being outside the HZ based on an erroneous S/N measurement. Selecting quiescent target stars or monitoring the light curves of stars would be a helpful way to get rid of contaminates associated with violent stellar activities. |
| format | Preprint |
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arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2503_20175 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | The influence of stellar activity on detecting Earth-like planets via nulling interferometry Zhou, Rui-Si Liu, Hui-Gen Zhou, Li-Yong Earth and Planetary Astrophysics Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics The direct imaging of Earth-like planets in solar neighbors is challenging. Both transit and radial velocity (RV) methods suffer from noise due to stellar activity. By choosing a typical configuration of an X array interferometer, we used theoretical formulas to calculate the intrinsic Poisson noise and the noise of stellar activities. Assuming a fixed array with no rotation and ignoring other systematic and astrophysical noises, we considered a single active region on a stellar disk, including both spots and flares with different parameters, for instance, the position, size, and temperature of the active regions. Then we simulated the S/N of Earth-like planets in HZ around G dwarf stars (solar-like) and M dwarfs (Proxima-like), with different stellar activities in the mid-infrared (MIR) band ( 7-12 $μ$m). The noise attributed to stellar activity has much less influence than the Transit and RV method when detecting Earth-like planets around both G and M dwarfs. I.e. Stellar activity can hardly influence the detection of Earth-like planets around G dwarf stars. However, detecting Earth-like planets around M dwarfs, which are usually more active, can be significantly hindered. We also analyzed the uncertainty of the planet's location due to the deduced S/N. Consequently, we have determined the possibility of mistaking a planet in the HZ as being outside the HZ based on an erroneous S/N measurement. Selecting quiescent target stars or monitoring the light curves of stars would be a helpful way to get rid of contaminates associated with violent stellar activities. |
| title | The influence of stellar activity on detecting Earth-like planets via nulling interferometry |
| topic | Earth and Planetary Astrophysics Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.20175 |