Getting to know the neighbours: Earth analogues in Alpha Centauri with the TOLIMAN space telescope

Peter Tuthill; Christopher Betters; Max Charles; Fred Crous; Conaire Deagan; Louis Desdoigts; David Doelman; Mark George; Kyran Grattan; Olivier Guyon; Thomas Holland; Peter Klupar; Connor Langford; Kieran Larkin; Clarissa Luk; Ben Montet; Jack Nelson; Benjamin Pope; Grace Piroscia; Frans Snik; Adam Taras; Alison Wong; Simon P. Worden

doi:10.1117/12.3019256

23 August 2024 Getting to know the neighbours: Earth analogues in Alpha Centauri with the TOLIMAN space telescope

Peter Tuthill, Christopher Betters, Max Charles, Fred Crous, Conaire Deagan, Louis Desdoigts, David Doelman, Mark George, Kyran Grattan, Olivier Guyon, Thomas Holland, Peter Klupar, Connor Langford, Kieran Larkin, Clarissa Luk, Ben Montet, Jack Nelson, Benjamin Pope, Grace Piroscia, Frans Snik, Adam Taras, Alison Wong, Simon P. Worden

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 13092, Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2024: Optical, Infrared, and Millimeter Wave; 130920C (2024) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.3019256
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2024, Yokohama, Japan

Abstract

The TOLIMAN mission will fly a low-cost space telescope designed and led from the University of Sydney. Its primary science targets an audacious outcome in planetary astrophysics: an exhaustive search for temperateorbit rocky planets around either star in the Alpha Centauri AB binary, our nearest neighbour star system. By performing narrow-angle astrometric monitoring of the binary at extreme precision, any exoplanets betray their presence by gravitationally, engraving a tell-tale perturbation on the orbit. Recovery of this challenging signal, only of order micro-arcseconds of deflection, is normally thought to require a large (meter-class) instrument. By implementing significant innovations optical and signal encoding architecture, the TOLIMAN space telescope aims to recover such signals with a telescope aperture of only a 12.5cm. Here we describe the key features of the mission: its optics, signal encoding and the 16U CubeSat spacecraft bus in which the science payload is housed - all of which are now under construction. With science operations forecast on a timescale of a year, TOLIMAN aims to determine if the Sun’s nearest neighbour hosts a potential planetary stepping stone into the galaxy. Success would lay down a visionary challenge for futuristic high speed probe technologies capable of traversing the interstellar voids.

Conference Presentation

(2024) Published by SPIE. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.

Citation Download Citation

Peter Tuthill, Christopher Betters, Max Charles, Fred Crous, Conaire Deagan, Louis Desdoigts, David Doelman, Mark George, Kyran Grattan, Olivier Guyon, Thomas Holland, Peter Klupar, Connor Langford, Kieran Larkin, Clarissa Luk, Ben Montet, Jack Nelson, Benjamin Pope, Grace Piroscia, Frans Snik, Adam Taras, Alison Wong, and Simon P. Worden "Getting to know the neighbours: Earth analogues in Alpha Centauri with the TOLIMAN space telescope", Proc. SPIE 13092, Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2024: Optical, Infrared, and Millimeter Wave, 130920C (23 August 2024); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.3019256

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