MRI: Development of the Habitable Zone Planet Finder Spectrograph for the Hobby-Eberly Telescope

MRI：霍比-埃伯利望远镜的宜居带行星探测器光谱仪的开发

• 批准号: 1126413
• 负责人: Suvrath Mahadevan
• 金额: $ 333.94万
• 依托单位: Pennsylvania State Univ University Park
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2011
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2011-09-15 至 2017-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1126413&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: MRI; Development; Habitable; Zone; Planet

Astronomers have now found over 500 planets orbiting other stars. Virtually all of these known "exoplanets" were discovered indirectly by inferring the presence of a planet by the gravitational tug and pull its mass imposes on the star during its orbit. This tug and pull can be observed as a periodic variation in the velocity of the star and can be observed from earth using an instrument called a "spectrograph" attached to a telescope. Most of the planets discovered outside our own solar system are "gas giants" at least as massive as Jupiter and have been found in close-in orbits to their stars and are not likely to be capable of supporting life. But it is very likely that there are a large number of planets that could do so. It is thought that such planets are likely to be rocky like earth and to orbit their stars within the "habitable zone" where conditions would allow and support the existence of liquid water. These orbits are far enough from the star that the temperature is not too hot due to the star's radiation but they are not so far away that any water would be permanently frozen. Because these planets must necessarily orbit at some distance for their stars to be found in the habitable zone and they are likely to be smaller rocky planets (like earth), the tug and pull they effect on their stars' velocities are considerably smaller than those of the large gas giants close to their stars. In order to find planets in the habitable zone it is necessary to use a highly precise and stable spectrograph that can very accurately measure tiny changes in the velocities of stars. Dr. Suvrath Mahadevan of Pennsylvania State University has designed such a spectrograph and will build it and put in on the 10-meter aperture Hobby-Eberly Telescope in Texas. This spectrograph is carefully designed to be extremely stable and to have a very precise calibration capability that will be able to determine small velocity changes. Dr. Mahadevan's "Habitable Zone Planet Finder" spectrograph is funded by NSF's Major Research Instrumentation program through the Division of Astronomical Sciences.

现在，天文学家发现了超过500多个绕其他恒星的行星。 几乎所有这些已知的“系外行星”都是通过在引力拖船上推断行星的存在并在其轨道期间将其质量施加在恒星上的。 可以观察到这种拖线和拉动是恒星速度的周期性变化，可以使用称为望远镜上的“光谱仪”的仪器从地球上观察到。在我们自己的太阳系以外发现的大多数行星至少与木星一样庞大，并且在恒星近距离轨道上发现，并且不太可能能够支持生活。但是很可能有大量行星可以这样做。 人们认为，这样的行星可能像地球一样岩石，并在“宜居区”中绕着恒星绕，条件可以允许并支持液态水的存在。这些轨道距离恒星足够远，因此由于恒星的辐射，温度并不太热，但是它们不远，以至于任何水都会永久冷冻。 因为这些行星必须在一定距离处绕绕恒星绕，并且在可居住的区域中可以找到它们的恒星，并且它们可能是较小的岩石行星（例如地球），所以拖船和拉动它们对恒星的速度的影响比靠近恒星的大气体巨头的速度要小得多。 为了在宜居区域找到行星，有必要使用高度精确且稳定的光谱仪，该光谱仪可以非常准确地测量恒星速度的微小变化。 宾夕法尼亚州立大学的Suvrath Mahadevan博士设计了这样的光谱仪，并将其建造并放入德克萨斯州的10米孔径爱好 - 欧伯利望远镜。 该光谱仪经过精心设计，以非常稳定，并具有非常精确的校准能力，可以确定速度变化的小变化。 Mahadevan博士的“居住区星球发现者”光谱仪由NSF的主要研究仪器计划通过天文学科学划分提供资金。

项目成果

TOI-1728b: The Habitable-zone Planet Finder Confirms a Warm Super-Neptune Orbiting an M-dwarf Host

• DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/aba0a2
• 发表时间: 2020-06
• 期刊: The Astrophysical Journal
• 作者: S. Kanodia;C. Cañas;G. Stefansson;J. Ninan;L. Hebb;Andrea S. J. Lin;Helen Baran;M. Maney

A Sub-Neptune-sized Planet Transiting the M2.5 Dwarf G 9-40: Validation with the Habitable-zone Planet Finder

• DOI: 10.3847/1538-3881/ab5f15
• 发表时间: 2019-12
• 期刊: The Astronomical Journal
• 作者: G. Stefansson;C. Cañas;J. Wisniewski;Paul Robertson;S. Mahadevan;M. Maney;S. Kanodia;C. Beard-C.-Bear