Terrestrial Exoplanet Light Curves

Abstract

The phase or orbital light curves of extrasolar terrestrial planets in reflected or emitted light will contain information about their atmospheres and surfaces complementary to data obtained by other techniques such as spectrosopy. We show calculated light curves at optical and thermal infrared wavelengths for a variety of Earth-like and Earth-unlike planets. We also show that large satellites of Earth-sized planets are detectable, but may cause aliasing effects if the lightcurve is insufficiently sampled.Comment: To appear in Proceedings of the IAU Colloquium 200, Direct Imaging of Exoplanets; Science & Technology, Villefranche-sur-mer, France, October 2-7, 200