Astrometric Detection of exo-Earths in the Presence of Stellar Noise

Abstract

Space astrometry is capable of sub-microarcsecond measurements of star positions. A hundred visits over several years could yield relative astrometric precision of ~0.1 uas, below the astrometric signature (0.3 uas) of a Sun-Earth system at a distance of 10 parsecs. We investigate the impact of starspots on the detectability, via astrometric and radial velocity techniques, of Earthlike planets orbiting Sunlike stars. We find that for nearby stars, although starspot noise imposes severe restrictions on detectability by the radial velocity technique, it does not significantly affect astrometric detectability of habitable zone planets down to below an Earth mass.