EPOCh

Map of Observations

Wavelength Coverage

The Extrasolar Planet Observations and Characterization (EPOCh) project was carried out using the instruments on board the NASA Deep Impact spacecraft during the cruise phase of its primary mission to rendezvous with Comet P/Tempel 1 on 4th July 2005. This project was to monitor several stars already known to host at least one exoplanet and to monitor the Earth as a remote source in several visible and near-infrared photometric bands. Deep Impact and EPOCh have been folded under the common Project acronym "EPOXI".  Only the EPOCh data are archived at MAST, whilst all EPOXI  data are archived at the PDS-SBN (Small Bodies Node at NASA's Planetary Data Systems), located at the University of Maryland.

The EPOCh observations of the Earth were made in imaging mode with two instruments in the visible and in spectroscopy mode in the infrared . Data for the Earth observations are available in the raw format and intermediate and final calibration stages. Note that all the images are defocused and have not been deconvolved. The stellar component of the EPOCh program consisted of monitoring eight target stars during January-August of 2008 with a series of 50 second exposures using the High Resolution Visible Imager  through the clear filter and and creating light curves for each system where possible. No light curves were created for the stars X0-2 and X0-3. The image data for these stars are located on the PDS-formatted site only.

Active From

Observing: January 2, 2008 - October 5, 2009

Resolution 

• MRI : medium resolution CCD imager
  • spatial 2.1"/pix
• HRIV : high resolution visible imager
  • spatial 0.4"/pix (defocused ~ 4" resolution)
  • time cadence for exoplanet observations 50 sec
  • time cadence for earth observations 15-60 minutes
• HRII spectrometer
  • spatial 2"/pix
  • time cadence for earth observations 120 minute exposures for 24 hours

Capabilities

• Spectra
• Imaging
• Time Series/Light Curves