Turn-Key Green Astro-Comb.

交钥匙绿色 Astro-Comb。

• 批准号: 1405606
• 负责人: Ronald Walsworth
• 金额: $ 67.44万
• 依托单位: Smithsonian Institution Astrophysical Observatory
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2014-09-01 至 2018-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1405606&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Turn; Key; Green; Astro; Comb.

The search for exoplanets, or planets orbiting stars other than our sun, is moving forward at a rapid pace. Progress in this field is largely driven by our technological ability to build instruments that can measure tiny radial velocity changes of a star's light as its planet or planets tug it towards us or away from us, creating a tiny "Doppler" shift in the stellar spectrum revealing orbiting companions. This technology in turn is largely limited by our ability to calibrate our planet-hunting instruments. Calibration identifies spurious errors that would otherwise mimic radial motion in a stationary star. The proposal in this case aims to build an easy-to-operate calibration system that will generate a comb of light with peak outputs spaced in wavelength, with fine enough comb scale to significantly advance the current state of the art in planet hunting instrumentation.The calibrator being built will be automated, and is intended for use on the HARPS-N spectrograph located at the TNG telescope in the Canary Islands. It will be a "turn-key", easy-to-operate astro-comb, producing outputs in the middle of the visible spectrum (~500-620 nm), and will enable precision radial velocity measurements with sensitivity 10 cm/s over arbitrarily long periods of time. The calibrator will be usable by telescope operators and observers without the need for laser scientists to be on site. The science thus enabled includes determination of the mass of Earth-like exoplanets, direct measurements of the acceleration of the young universe, and investigation of the constancy of fundamental constants over cosmological time scales.This project will train students and postdoctoral researchers in scientific practices at the interface of ultrafast optical physics and astronomical instrument building and observation. The techniques to be developed will contribute to a wide array of interdisciplinary and commercial applications in fields such as few-cycle optical pulses, molecular spectroscopy, and bioimaging.Funding for this project is being provided by NSF's Division of Astronomical Sciences through its Advanced Technologies and Instrumentation program.

寻找超越太阳以外的旋转恒星的系外行星或行星的搜索快速前进。 在这一领域的进步很大程度上是我们的技术能力驱动的，可以构建可以测量恒星光的微小径向速度变化，因为它的星球或行星将其拖向我们或远离我们，从而在恒星光谱中产生微小的“多普勒”变化揭示轨道伴侣。 反过来，这项技术在很大程度上受到我们校准狩猎行星乐器的能力的限制。 校准确定了偶然的误差，否则会模仿固定恒星中的径向运动。 在这种情况下，该提案旨在建立一个易于操作的校准系统，该系统将产生一定的光，并具有峰值输出的波长，并具有足够细的梳子尺度，以显着提高行星狩猎仪器中最新的最新技术状态。正在建造的校准器将是自动化的，旨在在金丝雀群岛的TNG望远镜的竖琴-N光谱仪上使用。 它将是一个“交钥匙”，易于操作的Astro-comb，在可见光谱的中间产生输出（〜500-620 nm），并且可以以10 cm/s的灵敏度启用精确的径向速度测量值任意长时间。 校准器将由望远镜操作员和观察者使用，而无需激光科学家在现场。 因此，启用的科学包括确定类似地球的外部球星的质量，对年轻宇宙的加速度的直接测量以及对宇宙学时间尺度上基本常数的构成的调查。超快光学物理和天文仪器的构建和观察的界面。 要开发的技术将在诸如少量周期光学脉冲，分子光谱和生物成像等领域的广泛跨学科和商业应用中做出促进。仪器计划。