Ground-based detection of terrestrial extrasolar planets by photometry: the case for CM Draconis

The detection of extrasolar planets by measuring a photometric drop in the stellar brightness due to a planetary transit can be statistically improved by observing eclipsing binary systems and photometrically improved by observing small component systems. In particular the system CM Draconis, with two dM4 components, would allow the detection of extrasolar planets in the size range of Earth-to-Neptune requiring a ground-based photometric precision of about 0.08% to 1.1% (photometric precision of about 0.3% is routinely achievable with 1-meter class telescopes at the magnitude of CM Draconis, 11.07 inR-filter). In addition, the transit of extrasolar planets in a binary star system provides a unique, quasi-periodic signal that can be cross-correlated with the observational data to detect sub-noise signals. We examine the importance of making such observations to an understanding of the formation and evolution of terrestrial-type planets in main-sequence star systems. Terrestrial planets could have formed with substancially shorter periods in this lower luminosity system, for example, and might be expected to have accreted essentially in the binary orbital plane (however, non-coplanar planets may also eventually be detectable due to precession). We also report on a network of medium-sized telescopes at varying longitudes that have been organized to provide such constraints on terrestrial-planet formation processes and discuss the extention of near-term observations to other possible binary systems, as well. Finally, we discuss a more speculative, future observation that could be performed on the CM Draconis system that would be of exobiological as well as astrophysical interest.