1 research outputs found
Ancillary science with Ariel: Feasibility and scientific potential of young stellar object observations
To investigate the feasibility of ancillary target observations with ESA's
Ariel mission, we compiled a list of potentially interesting young stars:
FUors, systems harbouring extreme debris discs and a larger sample of young
stellar objects showing strong near/mid-infrared excess. These objects can be
observed as additional targets in the waiting times between the scheduled
exoplanet transit and occultation observations. After analyzing the schedule
for Ariel an algorithm was constructed to find the optimal target to be
observed in each gap. The selection was mainly based on the slew and
stabilization time needed to observe the selected YSO, but it also incorporated
the scientific importance of the targets and whether they have already been
sufficiently measured. After acquiring an adequately large sample of simulation
data, it was concluded that approximately 99.2% of the available -- at least
one hour long -- gaps could be used effectively. With an average slewing and
stabilization time of about 16.7 minutes between scheduled exoplanet transits
and ancillary targets, this corresponds to an additional hours of
active data gathering. When this additional time is used to observe our
selected 200 ancillary targets, a typical signal-to-noise ratio of 10
can be achieved along the whole spectral window covered by Ariel.Comment: Accepted for publication in Experimental Astronom