Probing the outer regions of planetary systems
This sub-project focuses on the detection and orbital characterisation of planets on long-period orbits. The effort will be tailored to the analysis of the results from two major instrumental developments that are foreseen to start activities beginning of 2014, in phase with the start of the NCCR: the Gaia mission and SPHERE on the VLT. Gaia will provide astrometric measurements allowing to probe giant planets in the 1 to 7 AU range around close-by stars, whereas SPHERE imaging will be more sensitive to massive planets beyond 5 AU.
