Participant 3: University of Leicester (ULeic)
The University of Leicester has ~23000 students, employs over 3000 people and has a turnover of around 300 million euros. The Department of Physics and Astronomy (http://www2.le.ac.uk/departments/physics ) has five leading research groups covering astrophysics, space science, earth observation (EO) and knowledge exchange / technology transfer
(https://www2.le.ac.uk/institutes/liseo/expertise ). All the University’s space- and EO-related activities have now been brought within the recently formed ‘Leicester Institute for Space and Earth
Observation’ (http://www2.le.ac.uk/institutes/liseo ), comprising ~200 staff. The Department has a distinguished record in high-energy astrophysics dating back to 1960, and has played a leading role
in many X-ray observatories from Ariel-V to XMM-Newton and Swift. Its astrophysics project
developments now include substantial involvements in the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST;
infrared; NASA/ESA/CSA), Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA; very-high energy gamma rays; international consortium); Athena (X-ray; ESA); SVOM (X-ray; China/France); Gaia (ESA). The Department has a research programme encompassing a wide range of current observational and theoretical astrophysics including: exoplanets and their host stars; brown- and white-dwarf stars; normal, starburst and active galaxies; clusters of galaxies; deep extragalactic surveys; accretion on various size-scales from individual stellar systems to active galactic nuclei. The Department was
home to the XMM-Newton EPIC and Survey Science Centre teams, and is home to the UK Swift
Science Data Centre. The Department is involved in the infra-red sky survey UKIDSS and the
NGTS exoplanet survey. It is a member of the Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium, and
had a strong involvement in the development of the Virtual Observatory through its role in the UK
AstroGrid project and both VO-TECH and VO-DCA at the European level. Thus, the Department has extensive experience and skills in designing and developing data-processing and analysis software for major space (and ground-based) projects, including selection and testing of appropriate scientific algorithms, and construction and validation of astronomical-source catalogues and databases. The University’s Space Research Centre (SRC) building provides laboratories, engineering support, clean rooms and test facilities for instrument development. The SRC also operates an extensive set of facilities for instrumentation calibration and test. The SRC’s activities focus primarily on instrumentation and mission development for space astrophysics, and on instrumentation, mission development and data analysis and modelling for planetary science. The SRC also has an extensive portfolio of Knowledge Exchange/Technology transfer activities, including long-standing ones arising from its developments in X-ray detectors for space use. The
Department has a strong public-outreach programme (http://www2.le.ac.uk/departments/physics/outreach ), including extensive engagement with schools and their students; there are close links with the National Space Centre educational and visitor
centre, also in Leicester. The Department had a leading role with NSC, in establishing a long-term
exhibit and display area devoted to JWST, with a full-size, former test model of MIRI as centrepiece.
Role in ExoplANETS-A: The University of Leicester will participate in WPs 1, 4, 5 and 6, including leadership of WP4. J. Pye will coordinate and manage EXOPLANETS-A activities at Leicester, and will lead WP4. J.Nichols will provide expertise in the analysis and understanding of HST data for exoplanet host stars and application to exoplanetary atmospheres (WP4, WP5).
Participant 4, MPG/MPIA
The Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (MPIA) is consortium partner of this proposal. With more than 60 scientists in the Department of Planet and Star Formation led by Prof. Dr. Thomas Henning, MPIA is well-positioned in the field of exoplanets, and keen to play an important role in proposal. Specific expertise on exoplanet research covers a broad range from infrared instrument development, (space-based) instrument operations, observations and data analysis techniques, numerical (magneto-) hydrodynamical simulations, and radiative transfer studies. The institute is one of 83 research institutes within the Max Planck Society, one of Germany's most successful research organizations. The more than 15,000 publications each year in internationally renowned
scientific journals and 18 noble prize laureates are proof of the outstanding research work conducted at Max Planck Institutes – and many of those articles are among the most-cited publications in the relevant field.
The Planet and Star Formation Department at MPIA is pursuing a multi-wavelength approach to characterize the formation of planets in circumstellar disks and the atmospheres of exoplanets. This approach puts a special emphasis on the development of high-resolution techniques and spectroscopy. Our department has significantly contributed to the construction of space instrumentation for the ISO (ISOPHOT), Herschel (PACS) and JWST (MIRI) missions. MPIA is the German lead institute for the development of instrumentation and analysis software for the next astrophysics flagship mission JWST. We have also led and contributed to dedicated instruments for the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope Interferometer (MIDI, GRAVITY and MATISSE), and the planet finder SPHERE. The institute is also partner in the high resolution spectrograph CARMENES at the Calar Alto observatory and is a major partner in the consortia constructing the E-ELT instruments METIS and MICADO. All of these instruments are ideally suited to characterize planet forming disks and exoplanet atmospheres.
The institute has initiated new observing programs to search for extrasolar planets through direct imaging, the transit technique (HAT-S), and RV programs (CARMES). With the Spectral Differential Imaging facility (SDI) at the VLT, we provided a new mode for high-contrast imaging with the adaptive optics instrument NACO, which was used to search for planets around young stars. The Angular Differential Imaging technique (ADI) together with Polarimetric Differential Imaging (PDI) outperformed any other similar approach in the world and was paving the way for the development of ESO’s high performance SPHERE instrument, where MPIA is the Co-PI institute. The department actively participates in the 5-years planet search program SEEDS (Strategic Exploration of Exoplanets and Disks with Subaru) with the 8-m Subaru telescope on Mauna Kea (Hawaii) and the LEECH (LBTI Exozodi Exoplanet Common Hunt) program at the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) on Mount Graham (Arizona).
The theoretical program of the Planet and Star Formation department focuses on complex numerical simulations of planet forming circumstellar disks and exoplanet atmospheres, which includes the complex interplay between radiation, dynamics, chemistry, and grain evolution. We study the formation processes of planets including the accretion processes onto proto-planets and the formation of exoplanet atmospheres, and the various planet-disk interactions leading to planetary migration and influencing their compositions. The characterization of giant planets and superearths is supported by various efforts on modelling of exoplanets and their atmospheres at our institute. We have developed the Pressure-Temperature Iterator and Spectral Emission Calculator for Planetary Atmospheres (PETIT) code, which allows us to calculate the angle-dependent, dayside-averaged or globally averaged emission and transmission spectra of planetary atmosphere over a wide parameter range including metallicity, C/O ratio, cloud properties and host spectral type.
Working toward the detection and characterization of earth like planets, MPIA is part of the Heidelberg Initiative for the Origins of Life (HIFOL), which seeks to understand one of the most fundamental questions for humanity: how life emerged on Earth and whether it is widespread in the Universe. HIFOL facilitates a wide range of interdisciplinary theoretical, laboratory, and observational studies in the fields of astronomy, physics, geosciences, chemistry, biology, life sciences and more. HIFOL brings together researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics, the University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg Institute of Theoretical Studies, and Kirchhoff Institute for Physics.
Role in ExoplANETS-A: The Max Planck Institute for Astronomy will participate in WPs 1, 2, 3 and 6, including leadership of WP2. O. Krause will coordinate EXOPLANETS-A activities at MPIA and J. Bouwman will lead WP2 and contribute to WP3.
Participant 5, University College London
UCL is a multi-faculty university with 72 departments and covers all areas (many coursecombinations with over 250 different degree programmes to choose from). UCL hosts the largest biomedical research centre in Europe.
UCl has 36,000 students, 52% doing graduate studies (52% women and 48% men). 36% of UK students come from minority ethnic groups, 11,250 are international students from outside the EU (150 countries). Overall the staff to student ratio is 1:9.
UCL is a university at the forefront of teaching and research: approximately £430M research income annually – consistently ranked in the top 10-20 universities world-wide. 29 Nobel Prize winners were student or staff alumni of UCL.
UCL’s Astrophysics Group (http://www.ucl.ac.uk/star/), within the Department of Physics & Astronomy, is one of the largest in the UK, with research covering cosmology, galaxy formationvand evolution, star formation, stellar evolution, planetary science and instrumentation. With its 20vacademic staff members, 24 postdocs and senior fellows, 36 PhD students and 13 (technical andvadministrative) support staff, the Group carries out forefront research in many fields, while our strong instrumentation programme plays a key part in the technologies that makes our science outcomes possible.
Role in ExoplANETS_A: UCL will participate in WPs 3 and 5. G. Tinetti will coordinate and manage EXOPLANETS_A activities at UCL, and will lead WP5.
Participant 6, University of Wien
The University of Vienna is, with ~96000 students and 9600 employees (of which 6800 are scientists) one of the largest universities in Europe. Its Department of Astrophysics hosts approximately 60 researchers in various groups focusing on star and planet formation, exoplanets and habitability, stellar astronomy, late stages of stellar evolution, the interstellar medium, galaxy formation and evolution, and astrodynamics. Research is conducted both in observational and theoretical domains, the latter supported by high performance computing opportunities with the Vienna Scientific Cluster. The Department leads the largest Austrian national astronomy research program, devoted to studies of the origins of habitable environments on planets. There is significant involvement in instrument development for various space missions, presently CHEOPS (ESA), PLATO (ESA), ARIEL (ESA), SMILE (ESA/China), Gaia (ESA), Athena (ESA), and Spica (proposed; ESA/Japan), with previous contributions to CoRoT (France), MOST (Canada), Herschel (ESA), focusing on on-board software development. The Department also acted as the PI institute of the first Austrian satellite BRITE as part of the BRITE-Constellation network of photometric nanosats, and furthermore hosts a Co-PI of MIRI on JWST (NASA/ESA/CSA). About a decade ago, several research groups got involved in a vigorous program for software contributions to ESO observatories (including MATISSE), now working in a national program contributing to the E-ELT instruments METIS, MICADO, and MOSAIC and including all other Austrian university institutes of astronomy. The Department supports a diverse public-outreach program, including monthly evening talks at the observatory, public guided tours and observations with the historical 68 cm refractor, many public talks and school visits.
Role in ExoplANETS_A: The University of Vienna will participate in WP 4 as a co-leader, and as a leader of one of its subtasks. M. Güdel will coordinate and manage EXOPLANET activities at Vienna.
Participant 7, Stichting Sron
SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research is the national expertise institute for scientific space research. Its mission is to bring about breakthroughs in international space research. As national expertise institute SRON connects the science community, the technological institutes, and industry. SRON was founded in 1961 and now hosts around 130 permanent staff members. The staff is a combination of engineers, instrument scientists and scientists, providing the expertise triangle needed to go from concept to realisation of space hardware to harvesting and analysis of data. SRON has often been leading in missions (e.g. Herschel/HiFi and currently co-PI for ATHENA/X-IFU). The institute has a long history in infrared and X-ray missions including data analysis and instrument calibration.
Role in ExoplANETS-A: SRON will lead WP3 on retrieval using the expertise of M. Min in combination with the world leading expertise available at SRON on Earth oriented retrieval algorithms. SRON will also participate in WP2 on data analysis through the unique expertise of F. Lahuis on MIRI calibration and data analysis. Finally, expertise on planet formation and evolution will be brought into WP5 by M. Min and L.B.F.M. Waters.