Can I read Planet Formation Imager (PFI): Project update and future directions on EtoBox?

Planet Formation Imager (PFI): Project update and future directions by Monnier, John D.; Kraus, Stefan; Ireland, Michael J. is a scholarly article available to read on EtoBox.

What is Planet Formation Imager (PFI): Project update and future directions about?

The Planet Formation Imager (PFI) Project is dedicated to defining a next-generation facility that can answer fundamental questions about how planets form, including detection of young giant exoplanets and their circumplanetary disks. The proposed expansive design for a 12-element array of 8m class telescopes with >1.2 km baselines would indeed revolutionize our understanding of planet formation and is technically achievable, albeit at a high cost. It has been 10 years since this conceptual design process began and we give an overview of the status of the PFI project. We also review how a scaled back PFI with fewer large telescopes could answer a range of compelling science questions, including in planet formation and as well as totally different astrophysics areas. New opportunities make a space-based PFI more feasible now and we give a brief overview of new efforts that could also pave the way for the Large Interferometer For Exoplanets (LIFE) space mission.

Author

Monnier, John D.; Kraus, Stefan; Ireland, Michael J.

Published

2024

Language

EN