Collaborative Research: Turnkey Laser Frequency Comb Calibrator for the Habiable Zone Planet Finder

合作研究：用于宜居带行星探测器的交钥匙激光频率梳校准器

• 批准号: 1310885
• 负责人: Suvrath Mahadevan
• 金额: $ 9.48万
• 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: 2013
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2013-09-01 至 2018-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1310885&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Turnkey; Laser; Frequency

The discovery of planets around other stars, in startling numbers and sometimes with surprising physical properties, is one of the more noteworthy achievements of observational astronomy over the last two decades. Most exoplanet discoveries are made by observing with great precision the Doppler shift of the star around which the planet orbits, and seeing the very small recoil velocity as the mass of the planet pulls the star a small amount from its average position. The less massive the planet, the smaller is this stellar motion, and the more difficult are the measurements. So observing planets as small as our earth is a particularly challenging task that can only be done with spectral calibration of extreme precision. This project will build such a calibration system that will enable detection of terrestrial-mass exoplanets.The technology employed is a near-infrared (NIR) laser frequency comb with field-tested technology, capable of improving radial-velocity calibration by a factor of 5 or more. A complete telescope-ready subsystem will be made and then deployed in 2015 on the 10 meter Hobby-Eberly Telescope. An immediate science program of surveying low-mass and low-temperature M stars takes advantage of the carefully stabilized spectrograph's sensitivity to near-infrared light, along with velocity precision better than a meter per second from the new calibrator. This program will help resolve a fundamental but still unanswered question: "are there planets like our own around other stars, and how common are they?"This project is addressing a topic listed as one of the three most important research areas by the Astro 2010 decadal survey in which the astronomical profession prioritizes research directions for the next 10 years. There is certainly wide public interest in the questions to be answered, and an active program of outreach and educational activities will be supported as well.Funding for this project is being provided by NSF's Division of Astronomical Sciences through its Advanced Technologies and Instrumentation program.

在过去的二十年中，在令人惊讶的物理特性中发现了其他恒星周围的行星，有时具有令人惊讶的物理特性，是观察天文学的最值得注意的成就之一。 大多数系外行星的发现是通过非常精确地观察到恒星周围的恒星旋转的多普勒偏移，并看到地球质量从平均位置拉出少量的恒星时，看到了非常小的后坐力速度。 行星的量越小，这种出色的运动越小，测量值就越困难。 因此，观察像我们地球一样小的行星是一项特别具有挑战性的任务，只能通过极端精确的光谱校准来完成。 该项目将建立这样的校准系统，该系统将能够检测到陆生质量系外星球。所采用的技术是具有现场测试技术的近红外（NIR）激光频率梳子，能够通过5倍或更多一个或多个。 将在2015年建立一个完整的望远镜就绪子系统，然后在10米的爱好 - 昏迷望远镜上部署。 一项直接的科学计划，测量低质量和低温M恒星，利用了精心稳定的光谱仪对近红外光的敏感性，以及与新校准器相比，速度精度优于每秒一米。 该计划将有助于解决一个基本但仍未解答的问题：“是否有其他明星围绕其他明星的行星，有多普遍？”该项目正在谈论一个主题，该主题是Astro 2010年十年际调查的三个最重要的研究领域之一，在该研究中，天文学专业在未来10年中优先考虑研究指导。 当然，公众对要回答的问题有广泛的兴趣，并且还将支持一项积极的外展和教育活动计划。该项目的资金由NSF的天文学科学部通过其先进的技术和仪器计划提供。

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