Design Study: Mission to Alpha Centauri

设计研究：半人马座阿尔法星任务

• 批准号: 0750158
• 负责人: Debra Fischer
• 金额: $ 8.5万
• 依托单位: San Francisco State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2007
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2007-12-01 至 2009-11-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0750158&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Design; Study; Mission; Alpha; Centauri

A system of planets with masses and orbital periods similar to Venus, Earth and Mars should be detectable in the Alpha Centauri system using the current spectroscopic Doppler precision of 2 m/s combined with extreme cadence, i.e., hundreds of observations per night, every possible night. This observing cadence could achieve an effective (phase-binned) precision of a few centimeters per second, already demonstrated in asteroseismology programs, which would be sufficient for this purpose.Here, Drs. Debra Fischer (San Francisco State University), R. Paul Butler (Carnegie Institute of Washington), and Gregory Laughlin (University of California - Santa Cruz) will conduct a design study to fiber-couple the recently decommissioned Blanco spectrometer to the 1.5-m SMARTS consortium telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory. This design study will determine the feasibility of beginning such a long term, high-cadence Doppler survey to search for analogs of the four rocky planets in our solar system around five of the nearest stars: Alpha Centauri A and B, Tau Ceti, GJ780 and Beta Hydri. This program has the potential to catalyze dramatic changes in the strategy for ground-based Doppler surveys that will help inform future allocation of science funding and resources. The observations will also provide unprecedented information about stellar atmospheres via asteroseismology, differentially comparing the G0-type star, Alpha Centauri A, and the K0-type star, Alpha Centauri B. This work is funded from the Stellar Astronomy and Astrophysics program of the Division of Astronomical Sciences, as a Small Grant for Exploratory Research.

一个质量和轨道周期与金星、地球和火星相似的行星系统应该可以在半人马座阿尔法星系中探测到，使用目前2米/秒的光谱多普勒精度和极端的节奏，即，每一个可能的夜晚都要进行数百次观测。 这种观测节奏可以达到每秒几厘米的有效（相位合并）精度，这已经在星震学项目中得到了证明，这足以达到这一目的。Paul Butler（华盛顿卡内基研究所）和Gregory Laughlin（加州大学-圣克鲁斯分校）将进行一项设计研究，将最近退役的布兰科光谱仪光纤耦合到Cerro Tololo美洲天文台的1.5米SMARTS联盟望远镜。这项设计研究将确定开始这样一个长期的，高节奏的多普勒调查的可行性，以寻找类似的四个岩石行星在我们的太阳系周围的五个最近的恒星：半人马座阿尔法A和B，鲸鱼座τ，GJ 780和蛇座β。该计划有可能催化地基多普勒调查战略的巨大变化，这将有助于为未来的科学资金和资源分配提供信息。 这些观测还将通过星震学提供有关恒星大气的前所未有的信息，对G 0型星星半人马座阿尔法A和K 0型星星半人马座阿尔法B进行差异比较。这项工作由天文科学部的恒星天文学和天体物理学计划资助，作为探索性研究的小额赠款。