STScI Preprint #1275

The Exo-Zodiacal Disk Mapper: A Space Interferometer to Detect and Map Zodaical Dust Disks Around Nearby Stars

We present a concept for a space mission designed to make a mid IR survey of potential zodaical dust disks around nearby stars. We show that a two-aperture (0.6 m diameter), 10-m baseline, nulling interferometer located in a 1 × 4 AU, 4-yr solar orbit would allow for the survey of 400 stars in the solar neighborhood and permit a first-order determination of the disk inclination and radial dependences of density and temperature. The high dynamic range of the instrument may also be used to study additional astrophysical phenomena. Beyond its own scientific merit, such a mission would serve as a technological precursor to a larger interferometer of the type being considered for the detection of earth-like planets.

Status:

To appear in: Experimental Astronomy
Submitted: November 1997
Accepted: 10 June 1998

Affiliations:

¹) Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Drive Baltimore, MD 21218
²) The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218
³) Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA 91109
⁴) Observatiore de la Côte d'Azur, Caussols, France
⁵) Observatiore de Haute Provence, St. Michel, France