Blue Dots Team

Kick-off meeting

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Today’s agenda• 13h45: Welcome, general introduction (Vincent)

– Aims of the BDT– Overview of products and agenda– Initial discussion (15mn)

• 14h15: – Introductory remarks by each participant (10mn + 5mn discussion

each)

• 16h15-16h30: coffee break• 16h30: introductory remarks by each participant (10mn + 5mn

discussion each), continued• 18h45: ExoPlanet Task Force report and other US news• 19h15 discussions/info on ESA and the BDT• 19h30: end of the meeting for the day• 20h00: joint dinner

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Dinner tonight

• Starting 8PM• Restaurant « La Grande Ourse »

– 9 rue Georges Saché, 75014 Paris

– Walking distance from IAP: 1300m

– Cost ~40€ / person

– Tel. +33 1 40 44 67 85

– My cell phone +33 6 88 77 17 44

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Tomorrow’s agenda• 9h00-10h00: Proposed working methodology (Vincent) and discussion• 10h15-11h45: Discussions on:

– Working groups composition– Outreach to the community– Early funding strategies, ISSI team proposal– 2009 BD conference

• 11h45-13h15: lunch• 13h15-13h45: the when's and where's of the next meetings for 2008• 13h45-14h00: Discussion on short term actions• 14h00-16h00:

– Presentation of the collaborative working tools (website etc.) by F. Henry and discussion

– Open discussion

• 16h00: adjourn

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The Blue Dots initiative

• Realizing that:– There is one big science goal but many intermediate steps

– Partnering will be crucial

– Visibility of the field (as a community) needs to be improved

• A committee is formed: – To prepare a roadmap towards the detection and characterization

of habitable exoplanets• Science based, not restricted to a particular detection technique

– To seek and promote international partnership

– To structure the promotion of the theme within the astronomy community and the general public

The goal is to build a real community !

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Responses• More than 180 responses to date:• By country:

– AT: 5, AU: 2, BE: 8, CH: 6, CN: 1, DE: 18, FI: 1, FR: 45, GR: 1, IE: 1, IT: 4, JP: 2, NL: 8, PL: 4, PT: 1, RU: 4, SE: 1, SP: 6, UK: 31, US: 11

• By theme:– Formation: 1– Habitability: 8– Astrometry: 12– Microlensing: 1– Targets: 15– Nulling: 25– Biomarkers: 23– Atmospheres: 16– Outreach: 9– RV: 7– Networking: 9

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Challenges

• Integrate multidisciplinary knowledge• Self-appointed, self-mandated group has to build

credibility by itself– And fund itself… (~100k€ for the first two years of activity)

• Be compact but broad reaching– Compact for effectiveness– Broad reaching for completeness

• Take into account boundary conditions:– ESA’s calendar, formats– NASA’s agenda (cf. ExoTPF report, decadal review)

• The roadmap has to be endorsed to be useful…

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Blue Dots Team (core)• General coordination:

– V. Coudé du Foresto

• Science expert group coordinators:– C. Cockell, G. Tinetti, F. Selsis, I.

Ribas, H. Zinnecker

• Instrumentation expert group coordinators:

– N. Santos, J.-P. Beaulieu, A. Sozzetti, D. Segransan, A. Boccaletti, M. Ollivier

• Interface with industry:– Christoph Keller

• European networking & funding search:

– Helmut Lammer

• Public outreach & education: – Ewa Szuszkiewicz

• NASA representative:– Chas Beichmann

• ESO representative:– Gerard van Belle

• Russia / Eastern Europe contact:– Maxim Khodachenko

• Contact for Japan:– Hiroshi Shibai

• Contact for China:– XiaoWei Liu (TBC)

• Contact for India: – Abhijit Chakraborty

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Goals of this meeting

• Establish the « rules of the game »

• Clarify agenda for the next ~2 years

• Set-up our working tools

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The ESA perspective

• No need to appoint a contact person to a community initiative

• Creation of a Task Force– The goal is to advise ESA on where to spend tech

money – Chairman Artie Atzes– 2-3 meetings in March-April– Draft report due in May– « The result of this group will likely be exactly the

same as the US task force »

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Rules of the game ?

• It is important that rules of the game are clearly stated before the game starts

• Internal rules

• External rules

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Open questions

• Attendance to BD meetings ?– Open? Upon invitation?– Invited speakers?

• How do we respond to sollicitations for Blue Dots « blessing »?

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Workgroups

• Should they take a close or open form ?

• Should there be a WG on exoplanets structures ?

• The case of J. Schneider

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Timeline to roadmap(TBC)

• 2008 Q2 – 2008 Q3: collecting inputs from community

• 2008 Q4 – 2009 Q2: synthetizing results• 2009 Q4 : Blue Dots conference

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Methodology…the easy part / the hard part

• How to collect information ?– Virtual call for proposal

• How to synthesize it ?– How to build a consensus:

• Among ourselves• Among the community

– Do we allow roadmap with options ?

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Increasing visibility through the community

• Informing the community• Informing the ESA bodies (AWG, SSAC)• Responding to everyone• Participation to conferences• What else?

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Relevant conferences• AbSciCon 2008: The Fifth Astrobiology Science Conference

– Tuesday, 15 April 2008 - Thursday, 17 April 2008– Santa Clara Convention Center, Santa Clara, California

USA– http://abscicon.seti.org/

• The Universe under the Microscope - Astronomy at High Angular Resolution

– Monday, 21 April 2008 - Friday, 25 April 2008– Physikzentrum Bad Honnef (Köln/Bonn, Germany)– http://www.astro.uni-koeln.de/AHAR08/

• Extra-Solar Super-Earths– Monday, 16 June 2008 - Wednesday, 18 June 2008– Nantes, France– http://www.sciences.univ-nantes.fr/geol/SuperEarths2008/

• Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation 2008– Monday, 23 June 2008 - Saturday, 28 June 2008– Marseille, France– http://spie.org

• 15th Cambridge Workshop on Cool Stars, Stellar Systems, and the Sun

– Monday, 21 July 2008 - Friday, 25 July 2008– St Andrews, Scotland– http://star-www.st-andrews.ac.uk/coolstars15/

• Characteristics and Habitability of Super Earths– Sunday, 17 August 2008 - Sunday, 7 September 2008

– Aspen, Colorado

– http://aspenphys.org/documents/program/summer08.html

• 15th International Conference on the Origin of Life– Sunday, 24 August 2008 - Friday, 29 August 2008

– Florence, Italy

– http://www.dbag.unifi.it/issol2008/

• Extrasolar Planets in Multi-Body Systems: Theory and Observations

– Monday, 25 August 2008 - Friday, 29 August 2008

– Torun, Poland

– http://exoplanets.astri.umk.pl

• Cosmic Dust - Near & Far– Monday, 8 September 2008 - Friday, 12 September 2008

– Convention Center Heidelberg, Germany

– http://www.mpia-hd.mpg.de/DNF08/

• Searching for life signatures– Monday, September 22 - Friday, September 26, 2008

– Paris (UNESCO?), France

– http://iaaweb.org/content/view/295/434/

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The conference

• With Danchi

• When? Where?– Candidates: Napoli (Capodimonte),

Marseilles (PopSud)– Call for proposals

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Web site

• Mission statement

• Collaborative tool:– Will we use it?

• Science briefs?– For scientists– For general public

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Constitution of expert groups

• All respondees need to be replied to

• If a coordinator cannot attend a meeting, he can send another member of the expert group

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Initial timeline

• Dec 07: IAS meeting• Jan 08 : annoucement

– Sorting the > 180 responses

• Feb 08 : constitution of core group• 20-21 Mar 08 : kick-off meeting• Mar 08 : constitution of expert and support groups

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Stay tuned…

http://www.blue-dots.net

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Blue Dots TeamExpert groups and their coordinators

• Science themes:

– Habitability criteria: • Charles Cockell

– Exoplanetary atmospheres: • Giovanna Tinetti

– Signatures interpretation & biomarkers:

• Franck Selsis

– Targets & their environments: • Ignasi Ribas

– Planetary formation & evolution: • Hans Zinnecker

• Instrumentation themes:

– Radial velocities: • Nuño Santos

– Microlensing: • Jean-Philippe Beaulieu

– Transits: • Alessandro Sozzetti

– Astrometry: • Damien Segransan

– Single aperture imaging: • Anthony Boccaletti

– Multiple aperture imaging: • Marc Ollivier

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Boundary conditions

• ExoPlaTF

• ESA’s group

• ESA calendar

• NASA calendar