Speaker
Description
Among more than 5000 exoplanets discovered up to now, around 60 are believed to be potentially habitable. The Sun-Earth system provides a unique example based on which detailed insights into the properties, formation, evolution, and thus habitability of exoplanets could be gained. However, observing the Sun as a star and the Earth as an exoplanet has been rare. In this talk, I will briefly introduce the SOlar Terrestrial Habitability Explorer (SOTHE) to be deployed to the Sun-Earth L1 point around 2025. SOTHE will carry 5 payloads to obtain the spectra of the Sun and the Earth at the same time, together with images of the Earth at 7 unique passbands and the local plasma and magnetic field parameters at the L1 point. The core scientific goal of SOTHE is to conduct the first-ever simultaneous spectral observations of the Sun and Earth to explore key characteristics related to the habitability of the Sun-Earth system and provide a unique baseline for habitable exoplanets exploration.
