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The past year has produced some of the most exciting results in the
history of astronomy, particularly in the area of planets outside
our solar system. Only a half-year before our meeting in Toledo,
Spain, the first unambiguous detection of planet-sized masses
orbiting main sequence stars were reported. Since that time,
evidence for a new exo planet has been reported almost at the rate
of about once per month. Some of these objects are likely to turn
out to be very low-mass stars, but something like half show
characteristics - Jupiter-like mass and near-zero orbital
eccentricity - which appear to be unique to planets. Almost at the
same time that giant planets were being discovered regularly, the
two major space agencies, ESA and NASA, have iden tified searches
for and detailed study of Earth-like planets as a major priority
for the future. In ESA's "Horizon 2000 Plus" programme, an infrared
interferometer has been proposed as a possible future Cor nerstone
mission. Similarly, scientists in the US produced the "Road Map for
the Exploration of Neighboring Planetary Systems (ExNPS)", which
provided NASA with a long-term plan which leads also to an infrared
interferometer in space to study hypothetical Earth-like worlds
beyond our Solar System. Such an observatory is designed to search
for the thermal emission from a family of planets, using
interferometric nulling to remove the contaminating light from the
central star.
The two years previous to 1997 have produced some of the most
exciting results in the history of astronomy: the indirect
detection of planets beyond our solar system. The study of the
characteristics and physical nature of exo-planets requires an
infrared interferometer in space. Such observatory would directly
detect the thermal emission from exo-planets and would allow us to
see signatures of molecules, such as water, ozone and carbon
dioxide, in their atmospheres. The presence of such molecules would
be strong evidence for exo-life. In addition, this kind of
instrument would help to clarify important questions concerning the
birth and death of stars and extragalactic astronomy. In Toledo,
scientists and engineers from both sides of the Atlantic met to
discuss the technological challenges of an infrared space
interferometer and its scientific capabilities, particularly those
related to exo-planetary systems and Earth-like planets.
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