Program: GS-2009A-Q-500

Title:NICI Extrasolar Planet Search Campaign (I)
PI:Michael Liu
Co-I(s):

Abstract

We propose to conduct a multi-year direct imaging survey for massive (>1 Mjup) planets around nearby young stars using NICI on Gemini-South. The discovery of even a single planet would be significant finding. The broader goals of the NICI Campaign are to address three key issues in the extrasolar planet science: (1) the mass and separation distributions of planets in the outer regions (>5-10 AU) of other solar systems, (2) the dependence of planet frequency on stellar host mass, and (3) the SEDs of young extrasolar planets. Our collaboration comprises a team of established observers, instrumentalists, and theorists, possessing the broad range of expertise needed for all phases of this campaign: to contribute substantively to NICI commissioning and optimization, to implement a multi-year AO search program, and to follow-up and fully interpret exoplanet discoveries.

Publications using this program's data