Terrestrial Planet Finder

The Terrestrial Planet Finder ( TPF ) was a proposed NASA project that should look in other solar systems in the Milky Way with the help of several space telescopes from 2020 for Earth-like planets ( exoplanets ). In February 2006, TPF has been postponed indefinitely due to budget cuts; its realization is questionable.

Development

The project objective was not only to find Earth-sized planets of in the habitable zone around neighboring stars, but also the spectroscopic analysis of their composition, ie the presence of water, CO and CO2, O2 molecules, ozone and methane. In addition, the planet formation should be examined from the gas and dust disks around young stars.

According to the plan until May 2004, the project of two complementary telescope systems should consist of:

  • A large optical telescope with about 10 times the resolution of today's Hubble Space Telescope
  • An infrared interferometer of probably four interconnected infrared telescopes, each with 3-4 m diameter

The decisive factor here would be, with the help of nulling or with special optics ( Koronograf ) the outgoing radiation from the stars to reduce so far (factor 106 to 109 ) that the weak radiation from the planet will be seen in Star nearby.

The observable range would extend the current state of the art with this project at about 45-50 light-years and allow the study of more than 150 stars in our environment. The launch of the optical telescope was planned for around 2014, the infrared telescope should follow before 2020. From 2020, the successor Planet Imager was already provided, which should increase the range of the observations by a combination of TPF systems.

The project was coordinated with the Darwin ESA project that has been canceled, however, still in the design phase in 2007.

765923
de