The Terrestrial Planet Finder book is a place where current understanding of the science, technology and planning needs for the TPF mission are gathered in one place. The complete book has been broken up into chapters. These chapters are available below in PDF format. The images from each chapter have been extracted and can be viewed
here.
Chapters 3-8 of the book deal with the science issues for TPF. Chapters 9-14 are about the technology of the mission, and about long term potentials for observing extrasolar-terrestrial planets. The sections of this website have links to the chapters in the book to provide more detailed information. Questions about the science or technology should be addressed to Nick Woolf (nwoolf@as.arizona.edu).
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![Terrestrial Planet Finder Book Cover](cover.jpg) |
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Executive Summary (80K) |
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Introduction (64K) |
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Extrasolar Terrestrial Planets: Present Status and Future Prospects (144K) |
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Indicators of Life: Detection of Life via Remote Sensing (496K) |
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Zodiacal Dust in our Own and Other Planetary Systems (448K) |
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Design, Sensitivity, and Operations of the TPF Interferometer (928K) |
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Target Stars for Planet Searches (560K) |
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Probing the Central Arcsecond: General Astrophysics with TPF (496K) |
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Illustrative Science Mission (144K) |
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Progress Toward Astronomical Nulling (192K) |
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Feasibiliy of a Planet Finder Mission (576K) |
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Technology for the Terrestrial Planet Finder (544K) |
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The Development of the Terrestrial Planet Finder Mission (48K) |
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A Long-Term Program for Finding Life Beyond the Solar System (128K) |
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Signal to Noise Calculations (64K) |
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Additional Contributors and Credits (144K) |
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Acronyms (32K) |