Exoplanetary Circumstellar Environments and Disk Explorer


Exoplanetary Circumstellar Environments and Disk Explorer is a proposed space telescope for NASA's Explorer program to observe circumstellar protoplanetary and debris discs and study planet formation around nearby stars of spectral classes M to B. Had it been selected for development, it was proposed to launch in 2019.
The spacecraft concept proposed to use a 70 centimeter diameter telescope-mounted coronagraph called PIAA to suppress starlight in order to be able to detect fainter radiation of circumstellar dust. Characterizing constitution of such disks would provide clues for planetary formation, while already existing exoplanets can be detected through their interaction with dust disk. The project's Principal Investigator is Glenn Schneider.

Science goals

The science goals of the concept mission are: