0000000000523227
AUTHOR
Emanuele Pace
Ariel: Enabling planetary science across light-years
Ariel, the Atmospheric Remote-sensing Infrared Exoplanet Large-survey, was adopted as the fourth medium-class mission in ESA's Cosmic Vision programme to be launched in 2029. During its 4-year mission, Ariel will study what exoplanets are made of, how they formed and how they evolve, by surveying a diverse sample of about 1000 extrasolar planets, simultaneously in visible and infrared wavelengths. It is the first mission dedicated to measuring the chemical composition and thermal structures of hundreds of transiting exoplanets, enabling planetary science far beyond the boundaries of the Solar System. The payload consists of an off-axis Cassegrain telescope (primary mirror 1100 mm x 730 mm e…
Three-Dimensional parton structure of light nuclei
Two promising directions beyond inclusive deep inelastic scattering experiments, aimed at unveiling the three dimensional structure of the bound nucleon, are reviewed, considering in particular the $^3$He nucleus. The 3D structure in coordinate space can be accessed through deep exclusive processes, whose non-perturbative part is encoded in generalized parton distributions (GPDs). In this way, the distribution of partons in the transverse plane can be obtained. As an example, coherent deeply virtual Compton scattering (DVCS) off $^3$He nuclei, important to access the neutron GPDs, will be discussed. In Impulse Approximation (IA), the sum of two GPDs of $^3$He, $H$ and $E$, at low momentum t…