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M. Shao (J.P.L.)
Astrometric searches for planets look for the sideways wobble of a star due to the orbiting planet. Astrometry is the only planet search method that can measure the mass of the planet unambigiously with high precision.
SIM the Space Interferometry Mission has as its primary goal the search for planets around other stars. The search has three major components. One component is called our deep search. This is a search around ~200 of the nearest stars for planets in the habitable zone, with masses down to a few Earth masses. A second component of the planet search is a broad survey of ~2000 stars to study the morphology of planetary systems down to ~ 10 Earth masses. With the broad survey we hope to answer questions such as what types of stars are likely to have planets and are planetary system like our solar solar system with Gas Giants like Jupiter in the "outer" part of the solar system common? The last component of the SIM planet search is to look for planets around very young stars, to look for planetary systems that are still evolving.
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The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: mshao@huey.jpl.nasa.gov