BRIDGING THE GAP BETWEEN STELLAR/SOLAR ASTROPHYSICS AND EXOPLANET SCIENCE AS THE PATH TO FINDING EARTH'S TWINS

BRIDGING THE GAP BETWEEN STELLAR/SOLAR ASTROPHYSICS AND EXOPLANET SCIENCE AS THE PATH TO FINDING EARTH'S TWINSGIVEN THAT MOST EXTRASOLAR PLANETS ARE DETECTED BY THEIR INFLUENCE ON THEIR HOST STAR THE HUNT FOR THESE OBJECTS IS LIMITED BY PROCESSES OCCURRING ON THE SURFACES OF THESE STARS STELLAR NOISE WHICH CAN SWAMP OR MIMIC PLANETARY SIGNALS. THIS IS PARTICULARLY SO IN THE RADIAL VELOCITY (RV) DOMAIN WHERE THIS NOISE IS TERMED JITTER. ADDED TO THIS PHOTOMETRIC EXTRASOLAR PLANET SURVEYS SUCH AS K2 AND THE SOON-TO-BE-LAUNCHED TESS WILL UNCOVER THOUSANDS OF TRANSITING PLANETS IN ADDITION TO THOSE FOUND BY KEPLER IN THE HOPE OF FINDING THE HOLY GRAIL OF EXOPLANETS EARTH'S TWIN: A PLANET WITH BOTH THE SIZE AND MASS OF THE EARTH ORBITING ITS SUN-LIKE HOST STAR ON AN EARTH-LIKE ORBIT. PRECISE RVS ARE CENTRAL TO THE ATTAINMENT OF THIS GOAL AND SO IS THEREFORE A RESOLUTION TO THE RV JITTER PROBLEM. THE GOAL OF THIS PROPOSAL IS TO INCREASE THE CROSS-SECTION BETWEEN SCIENTISTS FROM DISCIPLINES THAT RARELY INTERACT WITH EACH OTHER (THEORISTS NUMERICAL MODELERS INSTRUMENT DESIGNERS AND OBSERVERS FROM THE FIELDS OF EXOPLANET DETECTION AND CHARACTERIZATION SOLAR PHYSICS STELLAR ASTROPHYSICS AND STATISTICS) IN ORDER TO (1) DETERMINE THE PHYSICAL DRIVERS OF STELLAR JITTER (2) DEVELOP WAYS TO MAXIMIZE PROSPECTS FOR EARTH-LIKE PLANET DETECTION AND (3) OPTIMIZE STRATEGIES TO MAKE THE MOST EFFECTIVE USE OF DATA FROM UPCOMING EXPERIMENTS AND OBSERVING FACILITIES. TO ACCOMPLISH THESE GOALS WE ARE ORGANIZING A 3-WEEK WORKSHOP AT THE ASPEN CENTER FOR PHYSICS WITH REPRESENTATIVES FROM ALL OF THESE FIELDS IN AN EFFORT TO OPEN PATHWAYS TO SOLUTIONS BEFORE THE DEPLOYMENT OF THE NEXT GENERATION OF DOPPLER SPECTROGRAPHS INCLUDING THE RECENTLY SOLICITED NASA EXTREME PRECISION DOPPLER SPECTROGRAPH AND THE EXPECTED DELUGE OF DISCOVERIES FROM NASA'S TESS MISSION.