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Program Number	130
Program Name	Solar System Objects
Principal Investigator	Wesley Traub [email] [web]
Co-Investigator(s)	Perry Berlind and Kenneth Jucks
Abstract	We request two days of total time spread out in small pieces throughout the trimester for observatis of Earthshine and also some planet spectra. The goal of this work is to expand on the Earthshine work we published this last summer and which has attracted significant attention (in the media at least). The long-term goal is to learn about planet spectra in the context of Terrestrial Planet Finder, so that when we design an instrument to look for planest, we will know what we should be looking for, for Solar-System like planets, at a minimum. As we learn how to make the Moon observations, I want to make them in pairs, before and after the New Moon, so as to see the light mostly reflected off the mostly Pacific area, and mostly North and South America and Africa areas. These should show different spectral signatures, without and with chlorophyll, for one thing. The "other planets" time is to fill in some gaps in our existing portfolio. Publications on each of both types of observations are planned. In March 2003 we submitted a proposal to NASA to do a similar Earthshine project at the South Pole, where 24-hour continuous observations are possible for at least 12 days per year, which would lilft the restriction we currently have of observing light reflected from the Earth over only selected longitudes; the work at Mt Hopkins will form the basis of our experience for the Pole program if it is funded.
Spectra	[search in archive]
Trimester(s) data taken	2001c-2002c
Papers	2002,ApJ, 574, 430
Other links	none

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