MRI: Development of the Global Network of Robotic Echelle Spectrographs - NRES

近年来，天文学家已经观察到超过1,000颗恒星，这些恒星被认为包含类似于我们太阳系的行星系统，而且新的发现正在迅速增加。 为了确认和描述这些系统，有必要对宿主恒星进行大量的观测。望远镜收集来自星星的光线，并将其通过摄谱仪，摄谱仪将光线扩散成彩虹般的“光谱”，可以分析该光谱，以确定从地球上观察到的星星的速度。 如果观测到的速度以一种可重复的方式变化，那可能是由于在围绕星星的轨道上存在一个伴星。 这些观测需要相当多的望远镜时间，并且缺乏专门设计用于进行这种高精度工作的望远镜和摄谱仪。 这对于所谓的短周期轨道来说尤其成问题，在短周期轨道上，绕轨道运行的行星靠近它的主星星，行星的“年”（绕主星星运行一整圈的时间）可能是几天甚至几小时。 为了确定这些物体的轨道特征，需要进行昼夜不停的频繁观测。 然而，由于地球绕轴旋转，星星就像太阳和月亮一样，在西方落下，所以从一个特定的天文台只能看到几个小时。 拉斯坎布雷斯天文台全球望远镜网络的蒂莫西·布朗博士建议在地球周围的几个望远镜上安装相同的光谱仪，以便在地球转动时连续监测恒星。 他和他的团队设计了一个高分辨率和非常精确的光谱仪，他们将建立六个副本。用这个光谱仪网络进行的观测肯定会大大增加我们对行星系统的了解。这项工作由NSF的天文科学部通过主要研究仪器计划资助。

In recent years astronomers have observed over 1,000 stars that are thought to contain planetary systems akin to our own solar system, and new discoveries are rapidly being added. In order to confirm and characterize these systems, it is necessary to conduct numerous observations of the host stars. Telescopes collect the light from the star and pass it through a spectrograph that spreads the light out into a rainbow-like "spectrum" that can be analyzed to determine the velocity of the star as viewed from earth. If the observed velocity varies in a repeatable way it may be due to the presence of a companion object in orbit around the star. These observations require a considerable amount of telescope time and there is a shortage of the kinds of telescopes and spectrographs specifically designed to do this high precision work. This is especially problematic for so-called short period orbits, where the orbiting planet is close to its host star and the planetary "year" (the time for a full orbit around the host star) may be days or even hours. To determine the orbital characteristics of these objects frequent observations around the clock are required. As the earth rotates on its axis, however, stars, just like the sun and moon, set in the west, so they can only be seen for a few hours from a given observatory. Dr. Timothy Brown of the Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope network proposes to put identical spectrographs on several telescopes around the earth so that the stars can be monitored continuously as the earth turns. He and his team have designed a high resolution and very precise spectrograph and they will build six copies. Observations made with this network of spectrographs is certain to add considerably to our understanding of planetary systems. This work is funded by NSF's Division of Astronomical Sciences through the Major Research Instrumentation program.