Astrobiology Workshop, Macquarie University July 12-13 2001

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Detecting extra-solar planets with a small space telescope

Tim Bedding ( School of Physics - University of Sydney)

The Danish-led small satellite project Roemer aims to study stellar oscillations using high-precision photometry. The payload is MONS (Measuring Oscillations in Nearby Stars), which consists of a 32-cm telescope that will measure oscillations from two-colour photometry of defocussed bright stars. There will also be a Field Monitor, a 5-cm in-focus telescope to monitor the field for finat variable stars that would contaminate the main science target, plus two Star Trackers for attitude sensing. All these instruments will achieve sufficient photometric precision to detect transits of large planets around stars, and perhaps also the phase variations in non-transiting systems.