Direct Explorations of Exoplanets with the Subaru Telescope and Beyond

Abstract

We present a Japanese “roadmap” on direct extrasolar planet studies spanning from the current ground-based telescope to future IR/Opt space-based telescopes. Several searches for young planets and disks have been conducted with the Subaru 8.2m telescope with adaptive optics (AO) infrared coronagraph, CIAO. The instrument will be soon upgraded to a new AO and a coronagraph with simultaneous spectral and polarimetric differential imaging modes (HiCIAO), which will significantly improve the contrast performance and hence the capability of young planet detection. A sensitive unbiased survey for extrasolar zodiacal emission around nearby stars will be conducted with the ASTRO-F space mission (0.7m telescope, $\sim$2–200 $\mu$m) to be launched around the beginning of 2006. A successor space mission, SPICA (3.5m, 5–200 $\mu$m), is also planned; its high sensitivity will enable the detection and characterization of outer-most planets around nearby stars, if any. For the studies of extrasolar terrestrial planets, a high contrast space telescope (HCST; 3.5m, $\sim$0.3–2 $\mu$m). We are also seeking for collaborations with or are considering to join to foreign missions. We describe an outline, status, and role of each project on the extrasolar planet studies.