The advent of Gaia, capable of measuring stellar wobbles caused by orbiting planets, raised an interest to the astrometric detection of exoplanets. Another source of such wobbles (often also called jitter) is stellar magnetic activity. A quantitative assessment of the stellar astrometric jitter is important for a more reliable astrometric detection and characterisation of exoplanets. We calculate the displacement of the solar photocentre due to the magnetic activity for an almost 16-year period (February 2, 1999 - August 1, 2014). We also investigate how the displacement depends on the spectral passband chosen for observations, including the wavelength range to be covered by the upcoming Small-JASMINE mission of JAXA. This is done by extending the SATIRE-S model for solar irradiance variability to calculating the displacement of the solar photocentre caused by the magnetic features on the surface of the Sun. We found that the peak to peak amplitude of the solar photocentre displacement would reach 0.5 mas if the Sun were located 10 pc away from the observer and observed in the Gaia G filter. This is by far too small to be detected by the Gaia mission. However, the Sun is a relatively inactive star so that one can expect significantly larger signals for younger, and, consequently, more active stars. The model developed in this study can be combined with the simulations of emergence and surface transport of magnetic flux which have recently became available to model the astrometric jitter over the broad range of magnetic activities.
A breakthrough in exoplanet detections is foreseen with the unprecedented astrometric measurement capabilities offered by instrumentation aboard Gaia space observatory. Besides, astrometric discoveries of exoplanets are expected from the planned space mission, Small-JASMINE. In this setting, the present series of papers focuses on estimating the effect of magnetic activity of G2V-type host stars on the astrometric signal. This effect interferes with the astrometric detections of Earth-mass planets. While the first two papers considered stars rotating at the solar rotation rate, this paper focu…
Ultra-precise astrometry from the Gaia mission is expected to lead to astrometric detections of more than 20,000 exoplanets in our Galaxy. One of the factors that could hamper such detections is the astrometric jitter caused by the magnetic activity of the planet host stars. In our previous study, we modeled astrometric jitter for the Sun observed equator-on. In this work, we generalize our model and calculate the photocenter jitter as it would be measured by the Gaia and Small-JASMINE missions for stars with solar rotation rate and effective temperature, but with various values of the inclina…
Using Astrometry to Break Degeneracies in Stellar Surface Mapping
Michigan Institute for Data Science, University of Michigan（密歇根大学数据科学研究所）；Department of Astronomy, University of Michigan（密歇根大学天文学系）；Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Michigan（密歇根大学电气与计算机工程系）
Astrometry has long been a promising technique for exoplanet detection. At the theoretical limits, astrometry would allow for the detection of smaller planets than previously seen by current exoplanet search methods, but stellar activity may make these theoretical limits unreachable. Astrometric jitter of a Sun-like star due to magnetic activity in its photosphere induces apparent variability in the photocenter of order $0.5\ \textrm{m}R_\odot$. This jitter creates a fundamental astrophysical noise floor preventing detection of lower-mass planets in a single spectral band. By injecting planet …
The astrometric recognition of the solar Clementine gnomon (1702)
克莱门汀圭表建于1702年，用于测量地球的自转变化。出于这个原因，针孔位于戴克里先时代的墙壁上（305 a. D.）为了在几个世纪中保持稳定，但其原始形式和位置已被修改。我们使用了一种天体测量方法来恢复针孔的原始位置：将针孔整形为直径为1.5厘米的圆，将北翼和南翼的位置与星历进行了比较。整个太阳图像向南4.5毫米的系统偏移表明，原始针孔位于实际位置以北4.5毫米，正如Bianchini的书（1703）中的图像所示。椭圆形的实际针孔也是错误的。使用圆圈，可以清楚地看到较大的太阳黑子。Philippe de la Hire星表（1702年）中的一些参考星，最初用于测量太阳的黄道纬度，被写在子午线旁边，但在最后一次恢复（2000年）后，其中四颗被错误定位。最后，子午线方位角与真北的偏差证实了1750年恢复的值。这一点，连同真线的局部偏差，将作为系统误差保留下来，就像所有这些历史仪器一样。
Astrometry is less sensitive to stellar activity than the radial velocity technique when attempting to detect Earth mass planets in the habitable zone of solar-type stars. This is due to a smaller number of physical processes affecting the signal, and a larger ratio of the amplitude of the planetary signal to the stellar signal. A few high-precision astrometric missions have therefore been proposed over the past two decades. We aim to re-estimate the detection limits in astrometry for the nearby stars which are the main targets proposed for the THEIA astrometric mission, the most elaborate mis…
Relativistic models of light propagation adopted for high-precision astrometry are based on the parametrised post-Newtonian formalism, which provides a framework for examining the effects of a hypothetical violation of general relativity on astrometric data. Astrometric observations are strongly affected by the post-Newtonian parameter $γ$ describing the strength of gravitational light deflection. We study both analytically and numerically how a deviation in the PPN parameter $γ$ from unity, which is the value predicted by general relativity, affects the parallax estimations in Gaia-like astro…
