Collaborative Research: Development of a Green-Orange Astro-comb for Exoplanet and Cosmology Research

合作研究：开发用于系外行星和宇宙学研究的绿橙色天文梳

• 批准号: 1006507
• 负责人: Franz Kaertner
• 金额: $ 32.5万
• 依托单位: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2010
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2010-09-01 至 2012-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1006507&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Development; Green; Orange

The high-dispersion optical spectrographs that have thus far enabled the discovery of more than 400 extrasolar planets have a common susceptibility: the need for ultrastable, broadband, high-line-density, bright, and continuous wavelength calibration so that the small reflex velocities of the host stars can be precisely characterized over periods of weeks to years. One crucial technology for these investigations utilizes a mode-locked femtosecond pulsed laser - which produces a bright, regularly spaced set of emission features in frequency space - together with a Fabry-Perot filtering cavity to create the appropriate line-density, all locked to an atomic clock for long-term stability. These so-called "laser combs" have the potential for enabling radial velocity measurements to a precision 10 cm/s; thus the determination of the mass of Earth-like exoplanets should eventually be possible.Dr. Ronald Walsworth of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and Dr. Franz Kaertner of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are planning to construct such a laser comb for the orange-green spectrum, a region well-suited to the detection of solar-type stars and therefore of stars in which a planet with an orbital period of ~1 yr would exist in the "life-zone", where surface water would be in liquid form. The team of investigators has an excellent track record in this area, having developed laser combs for the optical red and blue spectral regions. The new comb will be tested at the 1.5-m Whipple Observatory telescope on Mt. Hopkins, Az, and, when proven reliable, applied to an ongoing project at the 1.5-m telescope at Cerro Tololo Interamerican Observatory that is searching for exo-Earths orbiting stars in the very nearby alpha/beta-Centaurus star system. The activity will involve both women as both scientists and students, and the resulting time-controlled laser technology should have application well beyond astronomy. Funding for this work is being provided by NSF's Division of Astronomical Sciences through its Advanced Technologies and Instrumentation program.

迄今为止，已经能够发现 400 多颗太阳系外行星的高色散光学光谱仪有一个共同的敏感性：需要超稳定、宽带、高线密度、明亮和连续的波长校准，以便能够在数周至数年的时间内精确表征主恒星的小反射速度。 这些研究的一项关键技术利用锁模飞秒脉冲激光器（它在频率空间中产生一组明亮的、规则间隔的发射特征）以及法布里-珀罗滤波腔来创建适当的线密度，所有这些都锁定到原子钟以实现长期稳定性。 这些所谓的“激光梳”有可能实现径向速度测量的精度达到 10 cm/s；因此，最终应该可以确定类地系外行星的质量。哈佛-史密森天体物理中心的 Ronald Walsworth 和麻省理工学院的 Franz Kaertner 博士正计划建造这样一个橙绿光谱激光梳，该区域非常适合探测太阳型恒星，因此也适合探测“生命带”中存在轨道周期约为 1 年的行星的恒星，该区域地表水将呈液态。 形式。 研究人员团队在该领域拥有出色的记录，开发了用于光学红色和蓝色光谱区域的激光梳。 新梳子将在亚利桑那州霍普金斯山的 1.5 米惠普尔天文台望远镜上进行测试，并在证明可靠后应用于托洛洛山美洲天文台 1.5 米望远镜正在进行的项目，该项目正在附近的 α/β-半人马座恒星系统中寻找系外地球轨道恒星。 这项活动将涉及女性科学家和学生，由此产生的时间控制激光技术的应用范围应该远远超出天文学。这项工作的资金由美国国家科学基金会天文科学部通过其先进技术和仪器计划提供。