Exoplanets and Stellar Physics

Abstract:

A number of high-accuracy photometric missions will be launched in the next 6 years, starting with small, missions which will observe only a handful of objects and progressing to large size (1 m class), large field of view telescopes allowing the observation of up to some 100 000 stars simultaneously. While the prime science goals of these missions will be asteroseismology and terrestrial planet finding, their long-term, accurate photometric data will encode the surface activity pattern of each target star, and thus allow activity science to be performed on unbiased samples of stars of unprecedented size. The measurements which can be carried out in this way include the integrated activity level, the spot distribution and the rotation period. We discuss summarily the upcoming missions, and in some detail the activity measurements which can be performed with them. Eddington, an ESA mission whose primary science goals are asteroseismology and extra-solar terrestrial planet finding, and scheduled for launch in 2007, is also discussed in some detail.