The EChO science case

Giovanna Tinetti (1) , Pierre Drossart (2) , Paul Eccleston , Paul Hartogh (3) , Kate Isaak (4) , Martin, Linder (5) , Christophe, Lovis , Giusi, Micela (6) , Marc, Ollivier (7) , Ludovic, Puig , Ignasi, Ribas (8) , Ignas, Snellen , Bruce Swinyard , France Allard (9) , Joanna, Barstow (10) , James, Cho (11) , Athena, Coustenis (2) , Charles, Cockell (12) , Alexandre, Correia (13) , Leen, Decin , Remco, de Kok (14) , Pieter, Deroo , Therese, Encrenaz (2) , Francois, Forget (15) , Alistair, Glasse , Caitlin, Griffith (16) , Tristan Guillot (17) , Tommi, Koskinen (18) , Helmut, Lammer (19) , Jeremy, Leconte (9, 15) , Pierre, Maxted , Ingo, Mueller-Wodarg , Richard, Nelson (20) , Chris, North (21) , Enric, Pallé , Isabella, Pagano , Guseppe, Piccioni (22) , David, Pinfield (23) , Franck Selsis (24) , Alessandro, Sozzetti , Lars, Stixrude , Jonathan, Tennyson (25) , Diego, Turrini , Mariarosa, Zapatero-Osorio. Jean-Philippe Beaulieu , Denis, Grodent (26) , Manuel, Guedel , David, Luz (27) , Hans Ulrik, Nørgaard-Nielsen , Tom, Ray , Hans, Rickman (28, 29) , Avri, Selig (30) , Mark Swain. Marek, Banaszkiewicz (29) , Mike, Barlow , Neil, Bowles (31) , Graziella, Branduardi-Raymont (32) , Vincent, Coudé Du Foresto , Jean-Claude, Gerard (26) , Laurent, Gizon , Allan, Hornstrup , Christopher, Jarchow , Franz, Kerschbaum , Géza, Kovacs (33) , Pierre-Olivier, Lagage (34) , Tanya, Lim , Mercedes, Lopez-Morales , Giuseppe, Malaguti (35) , Emanuele, Pace , Enzo, Pascale , Bart, Vandenbussche (36) , Gillian, Wright (37) , Gonzalo Ramos Zapata. Alberto, Adriani , Ruymán, Azzollini , Ana, Balado , Ian, Bryson , Raymond, Burston , Josep, Colomé , Martin, Crook , Anna, Di Giorgio (38) , Matt, Griffin , Ruud, Hoogeveen (14) , Roland, Ottensamer , Ranah, Irshad (31) , Kevin, Middleton , Gianluca, Morgante , Frederic Pinsard , Mirek, Rataj , Jean-Michel, Reess (2) , Giorgio, Savini , Jan-Rutger, Schrader , Richard, Stamper (39) , Berend Winter. L., Abe , M., Abreu (40) , N., Achilleos (25, 41) , P., Ade , V., Adybekian , L., Affer , C., Agnor (42) , M. Agúndez , C., Alard (43) , J., Alcala , C., Allende Prieto , F. J., Alonso Floriano , F., Altieri (22) , C. A., Alvarez Iglesias , P., Amado , Ann Andersen (44) , A., Aylward (1) , C., Baffa , G., Bakos , P., Ballerini , M., Banaszkiewicz (29) , R. J., Barber (45) , D., Barrado (46, 47) , E. J., Barton (48, 49) , V., Batista , G., Bellucci (22) , J. A., Belmonte Avilés , D., Berry (50) , B., Bézard (2) , D., Biondi , M., Błęcka , I., Boisse (51) , B., Bonfond (26) , Pascal Bordé (24) , P., Börner (33) , H., Bouy (52) , L., Brown (53) , L., Buchhave , J., Budaj , A., Bulgarelli , M., Burleigh (10) , A., Cabral (54) , M. T., Capria , A., Cassan (55) , C., Cavarroc (56) , C., Cecchi-Pestellini , R., Cerulli (57) , J., Chadney , S., Chamberlain (58) , S., Charnoz , N. Christian, Jessen , A., Ciaravella , A., Claret (59) , R., Claudi , A., Coates (32) , R., Cole , A., Collura , D. Cordier (60) , E., Covino , C., Danielski , M., Damasso , H. J., Deeg (43) , E., Delgado-Mena , C., del Vecchio (61) , O., Demangeon (62) , A., de Sio , J., de Wit , M. Dobrijevic (63) , P., Doel , C., Dominic , E., Dorfi (64) , S., Eales , C., Eiroa , M., Espinoza Contreras , M., Esposito (65) , Vincent Eymet , N., Fabrizio (66) , M., Fernández (67) , B., Femenía Castella , P., Figueira (68) , G., Filacchione (22) , L., Fletcher (31) , M., Focardi (69) , S., Fossey , P., Fouqué (70, 71) , J., Frith , M., Galand (72) , L., Gambicorti , P., Gaulme (73) , R. J., García López , A., Garcia-Piquer , W., Gear (74) , Jean-Claude Gérard (26) , L., Gesa , E., Giani , F., Gianotti , M., Gillon (75) , E., Giro , M., Giuranna (22) , H., Gomez (76) , Illeana Gómez Leal (24) , J., Gonzalez Hernandez , B., González Merino , R. Graczyk , D., Grassi (22) , J., Guardia , P., Guio (25) , J., Gustin (26) , P., Hargrave , J., Haigh (77) , Eric Hébrard (24) , U., Heiter , R. L., Heredero , E., Herrero (78) , F. Hersant (24) , D., Heyrovsky , M., Hollis , B., Hubert (79) , R., Hueso (80) , G., Israelian , N., Iro (81) , P., Irwin (31) , S., Jacquemoud , G., Jones , H., Jones , K., Justtanont (82) , T., Kehoe , F., Kerschbaum , E., Kerins , P., Kervella (2) , D., Kipping , T., Koskinen (18) , N., Krupp (3) , O., Lahav , B., Laken , N., Lanza (83) , E., Lellouch , G., Leto (84) , J., Licandro Goldaracena , C., Lithgow-Bertelloni (25) , S. J., Liu (85) , U., Lo Cicero , N., Lodieu , Philippe Lognonné (86) , M., Lopez-Puertas (87) , M. A., Lopez-Valverde (88) , I., Lundgaard Rasmussen , A., Luntzer (89) , P., Machado (90, 91) , C., Mactavish , A., Maggio , J.-P., Maillard (92) , W., Magnes , J., Maldonado , U., Mall (3) , J.-B. Marquette (43) , P., Mauskopf , F., Massi (93, 94) , A. S. Maurin (95) , A., Medvedev , C., Michaut (96) , P., Miles-Paez , M., Montalto , P., Montañés Rodríguez , M., Monteiro , D., Montes , H., Morais , J. C., Morales (2) , M., Morales-Calderón , G., Morello , A., Moro Martín , J., Moses , A., Moya Bedon , F., Murgas Alcaino , E., Oliva (97) , G., Orton (53) , F., Palla , M., Pancrazzi , E., Pantin , V., Parmentier (17) , H., Parviainen , K. Y., Peña Ramírez , J., Peralta (27, 87) , S., Perez-Hoyos (80) , R., Petrov (17) , S., Pezzuto , R., Pietrzak , E., Pilat-Lohinger (64) , N., Piskunov (28) , R., Prinja (1) , L., Prisinzano , I., Polichtchouk , E., Poretti , A., Radioti (26) , A. A., Ramos (98) , T., Rank-Lüftinger , P., Read (31) , K., Readorn , R., Rebolo López , J., Rebordão (54) , M., Rengel (33) , L., Rezac (3) , M., Rocchetto (99) , F., Rodler , V. J., Sánchez Béjar , A., Sanchez Lavega , E., Sanromá (100) , N., Santos (101, 68) , J., Sanz Forcada , G., Scandariato , F.-X., Schmider (73, 17) , A., Scholz (102) , S., Scuderi , J., Sethenadh , S., Shore , A., Showman (16) , B., Sicardy , P., Sitek (103) , Agnès Smith (32) , L., Soret (26) , S., Sousa , Arnaud Stiepen (26) , M., Stolarski , G., Strazzulla (104) , H. M, Tabernero , P., Tanga (17) , M., Tecsa , J., Temple , L., Terenzi , M., Tessenyi , L., Testi , S., Thompson (105) , H., Thrastarson , B. W., Tingley , M., Trifoglio , J., Martín Torres , A., Tozzi (93) , D., Turrini , R., Varley , F., Vakili (17) , M., de Val-Borro (33) , M. L., Valdivieso , O. Venot (24) , E., Villaver , S., Vinatier (2) , S., Viti , I., Waldmann , D., Waltham (106) , D. Ward-Thompson , R., Waters , C., Watkins , D., Watson , P., Wawer , A., Wawrzaszk , G., White , T., Widemann (2) , W., Winek , T., Wiśniowski , R., Yelle (18) , Y., Yung (107) , S. N., Yurchenko

1 UCL - University College of London [London]
2 LESIA - Laboratoire d'études spatiales et d'instrumentation en astrophysique
3 MPS - Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research
4 ESTEC - European Space Research and Technology Centre
5 ESA - Agence Spatiale Européenne = European Space Agency
6 OAPa - INAF - Osservatorio Astronomico di Palermo
7 LTM - Laboratoire des technologies de la microélectronique
8 Dpto. de Organización de Empresas, Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingeniería Industrial de Barcelona
9 CRAL - Centre de Recherche Astrophysique de Lyon
10 Department of Physics and Astronomy [Leicester]
11 ARL - U.S. Army Research Laboratory [Adelphi, MD]
12 ROE - Royal Observatory Edinburgh
13 Departamento de Fisica [Aveiro]
14 SRON - SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research
15 LMD - Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique (UMR 8539)
16 Department of Planetary Sciences [Tucson]
17 LAGRANGE - Joseph Louis LAGRANGE
18 LPL - Lunar and Planetary Laboratory [Tucson]
19 IWF - Space Research Institute of Austrian Academy of Sciences
20 The Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation
21 HCI - Center for Human-Computer Interaction
22 IAPS - Istituto di Astrofisica e Planetologia Spaziali - INAF
23 Centre for Astrophysics Research [Hatfield]
24 ECLIPSE 2015
25 Department of Physics and Astronomy [UCL London]
26 LPAP - Laboratoire de Physique Atmosphérique et Planétaire
27 CAAUL - Centro de Astronomia e Astrofísica da Universidade de Lisboa
28 Department of Physics and Astronomy [Uppsala]
29 CBK - Space Research Centre of Polish Academy of Sciences
30 Institute for Control Engineering of Machine Tools and Manufacturing Units (ISW), University of Stuttgart
31 AOPP - Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Planetary Physics [Oxford]
32 MSSL - Mullard Space Science Laboratory
33 MPS - Max-Planck-Institut für Sonnensystemforschung
34 IRFU - Institut de Recherches sur les lois Fondamentales de l'Univers
35 Institut Curie [Paris]
36 Instituut voor Sterrenkunde [Leuven]
37 Centre for Behaviour and Evolution, Institute of Neuroscience
38 FL - foreign laboratories
39 RAL - STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
40 Estrutura de Missão para a Extensão da Plataforma Continental
41 CPS - Centre for Planetary Sciences [UCL/Birkbeck]
42 QMUL - Queen Mary University of London
43 IAP - Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris
44 DARK - Dark Cosmology Centre
45 STFC - Computational Science and Engineering Department [Daresbury]
46 Departamento de Astrofisica [Madrid]
47 Calar Alto Observatory
48 Department of Geoscience
49 AEON-ESSRI - African Earth Observatory Network - Earth Stewardship Science Research Institute
50 Animal Genetics
51 LAM - Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille
52 CAB - Centro de Astrobiologia [Madrid]
53 JPL - Jet Propulsion Laboratory
54 INETI - Instituto Nacional de Engenharia, Tecnologia e Inovacao
55 UPMC - Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6
56 CEA - CEA- Saclay
57 Università di Salerno - Dipartimento di Matematica
58 Department of Genetics
59 IRTA
60 UTINAM - Univers, Transport, Interfaces, Nanostructures, Atmosphère et environnement, Molécules (UMR 6213)
61 Department of Molecular Medicine
62 IAS - Institut d'astrophysique spatiale
63 ASP 2015
64 Institute for Astronomy [Vienna]
65 IGM - Institut de génétique et microbiologie [Orsay]
66 DFKI - Deutsches Forschungszentrum für Künstliche Intelligenz GmbH = German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence
67 CONICET - Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas [Buenos Aires]
68 CAUP - Centro de Astrofísica da Universidade do Porto
69 Dipartimento di Matematica "Ulisse Dini"
70 IUF - Institut Universitaire de France
71 UR1 - Université de Rennes 1
72 Imperial College London
73 FIZEAU - Laboratoire Hippolyte Fizeau
74 School of Physics and Astronomy [Cardiff]
75 Institut d'Astrophysique et de Géophysique [Liège]
76 LAL - Laboratoire de l'Accélérateur Linéaire
77 University of Bradford
78 Instituto Universitario de Electroquimica
79 CREN - Centre de recherche en éducation de Nantes
80 Departamento de Fisica Aplicada [Bilbao]
81 GSFC - NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
82 OSO - Onsala Space Observatory
83 LANL - Los Alamos National Laboratory
84 Osserv Astrofis Catania, Ist Nazl Astrofis
85 SCK-CEN - Centre d'Etude de l'Energie Nucléaire
86 IPGP (UMR_7154) - Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris
87 IAA - Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía
88 Consejo Super Invest Cient, Inst Astrofis Andalucia, ES-18080 Granada, Spain
89 University of Vienna [Vienna]
90 LEIDEN - Rhumato - Department of Rheumatology
91 COIMBRA - Rhumato - Department of Rheumatology
92 CSTB - Centre Scientifique et Technique du Bâtiment
93 OAA - INAF - Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri
94 INAF - Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica
95 UB - Université de Bordeaux
96 IPGP - Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris
97 LPGP - Laboratoire de physique des gaz et des plasmas
98 UC - Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile
99 UNIVR | DI - Department of Computer Science [Verona]
100 IEB-UNIVERSITY OF BARCELONA
101 DFA/FCUP - Departamento de Física e Astronomia [Porto]
102 TLS - Thüringer Landessternwarte Tautenburg
103 BIBA - Bremer Institut für Produktion und Logistik GmbH
104 OACT - INAF - Osservatorio Astrofisico di Catania
105 Plasmon Nano-optics
106 RHUL - Royal Holloway [University of London]
107 Hong Kong Government Environmental Protection Department

The discovery of almost 2000 exoplanets has revealed an unexpectedly diverse planet population. Observations to date have shown that our Solar System is certainly not representative of the general population of planets in our Milky Way. The key science questions that urgently need addressing are therefore: What are exoplanets made of? Why are planets as they are? What causes the exceptional diversity observed as compared to the Solar System? EChO (Exoplanet Characterisation Observatory) has been designed as a dedicated survey mission for transit and eclipse spectroscopy capable of observing a large and diverse planet sample within its four-year mission lifetime. EChO can target the atmospheres of super-Earths, Neptune-like, and Jupiter-like planets, in the very hot to temperate zones (planet temperatures of 300K-3000K) of F to M-type host stars. Over the next ten years, several new ground- and space-based transit surveys will come on-line (e.g. NGTS, CHEOPS, TESS, PLATO), which will specifically focus on finding bright, nearby systems. The current rapid rate of discovery would allow the target list to be further optimised in the years prior to EChO's launch and enable the atmospheric characterisation of hundreds of planets. Placing the satellite at L2 provides a cold and stable thermal environment, as well as a large field of regard to allow efficient time-critical observation of targets randomly distributed over the sky. A 1m class telescope is sufficiently large to achieve the necessary spectro-photometric precision. The spectral coverage (0.5-11 micron, goal 16 micron) and SNR to be achieved by EChO, thanks to its high stability and dedicated design, would enable a very accurate measurement of the atmospheric composition and structure of hundreds of exoplanets.

Domains: Sciences of the Universe [physics]; Astrophysics [astro-ph]; Sciences of the Universe [physics]; Astrophysics [astro-ph]; Earth and Planetary Astrophysics [astro-ph.EP]

Giovanna Tinetti, Pierre Drossart, Paul Eccleston, Paul Hartogh, Kate Isaak, et al.. The EChO science case. Experimental Astronomy, 2015, 40 (2-3), pp.329-391. ⟨10.1007/s10686-015-9484-8⟩. ⟨hal-01136385⟩