Cool Stars 14 - Submitted Abstract # 287
This version created on 05 October 2006

Detection of Terrestrial Planets with SIM/PlanetQuest


Chris McCarthy, San Francisco State University
Debra Fischer, San Francisco State University
Geoff Marcy, U. C. Berkeley

The Space Interferometry Mission will return unprecedented astrometric
precision approaching 1 microarcsecond, enabling the detection of
planets with masses few times the mass of the Earth around the nearest
stars.  To achieve such precision in narrow angle mode, SIM requires
an exquisitely stable reference frame established by distant
background stars, each within 1 degree of a target star.  We present
precise Keck radial velocity measurements of SIM reference stars and
current status of SIM's search for extrasolar terrestrial planets.

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