2013/05/14 by Adrian M. Glauser, A. M. Glauser, R. van Boekel +80
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Atmospheric Ozone and Climate #Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP) #FOS: Physical sciences #Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM) #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph.EP #astro-ph.IM
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1305.3089
20 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in the Journal of Astronomical Instrumentation
arxiv created 2013/05/14 · openalex publication_date 2013/05/14 · arxiv updated 2013/05/15 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Transit-spectroscopy of exoplanets is one of the key observational techniques to characterize the extrasolar planet and its atmosphere. The observational challenges of these measurements require dedicated instrumentation and only the space environment allows an undisturbed access to earth-like atmospheric features such as water or carbon-dioxide. Therefore, several exoplanet-specific space missions are currently being studied. One of them is EChO, the Exoplanet Characterization Observatory, which is part of ESA's Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 program, and which is one of four candidates for the M3 launch slot in 2024. In this paper we present the results of our assessment study of the EChO spectrometer, the only science instrument onboard this spacecraft. The instrument is a multi-channel all-reflective dispersive spectrometer, covering the wavelength range from 400 nm to 16 microns simultaneously with a moderately low spectral resolution. We illustrate how the key technical challenge of the EChO mission - the high photometric stability - influences the choice of spectrometer concept and drives fundamentally the instrument design. First performance evaluations underline the fitness of the elaborated design solution for the needs of the EChO mission.