Studies of expolanets and solar systems with SPICA

The SPace Infrared telescope for Cosmology and Astrophysics (SPICA) is a proposed mid-to-far infrared (4–200μm) astronomy mission, scheduled for launch in 2017. A single, 3.5 m aperture telescope would provide superior image quality at 5–200μm, and its very cold (∼5K) instrumentation would provide superior sensitivity in the 25–200 μμm wavelength regimes. This would provide a breakthrough opportunity for studies of exoplanets, protoplanetary and debris disk, and small solar system bodies. This paper summarizes the potential scientific impacts for the proposed instrumentation.