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Description
Phase-referenced interferometric astrometry offers the possibility to look for exoplanets around bright stars. Instruments like PRIMA (Phase-Referenced Imaging and Micro-arcsecond Astrometry) will measure the astrometric wobble of a candidate star due to an exoplanet relative to a close-by 'calibrator' star, located within the instrument's observing field (1-arcmin in the PRIMA case). Stars with already known exoplanets will constitute the first targets for this technique, as it will provide a way to further specify the characteristics of the known exoplanets, such as the inclinations. The main requirement is to have a calibrator in the vicinity of the star. We provide here a list of calibrators for all stars with known exoplanets obtained using data mining and Virtual Observatory techniques. This list is available online and revised regularly. The calibrators are found from catalogues available at Centre de Donnees astronomiques de Strasbourg (CDS) using the SearchCal software developed at Jean-Marie Mariotti Center (JMMC). In our test case, the calibrators are found within 1 arcmin angular distance for approximately 50 per cent of the stars tested, and often closer. They are all faint objects from the Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) with K magnitudes between 13 and 15. A list of the most promising targets is also given.
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