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

在其他恒星周围发现行星，数量惊人，有时具有令人惊讶的物理性质，是过去二十年来观测天文学最值得注意的成就之一。 大多数系外行星的发现都是通过非常精确地观察行星围绕其运行的星星的多普勒频移，并看到非常小的反冲速度，因为行星的质量将星星从其平均位置拉了一小部分。 行星的质量越小，这种恒星运动就越小，测量就越困难。 因此，观测像我们地球这样小的行星是一项特别具有挑战性的任务，只能通过极高精度的光谱校准来完成。 该项目将建立一个能够探测地球质量系外行星的校准系统，所采用的技术是一种近红外激光频率梳，采用经过实地测试的技术，能够将径向速度校准提高5倍或更多。 一个完整的望远镜准备子系统将在2015年部署在10米的霍比-埃伯利望远镜上。 一个立即测量低质量和低温M星的科学计划利用了精心稳定的光谱仪对近红外光的灵敏度，沿着新校准器的速度精度优于每秒一米。 这个项目将有助于解决一个基本但仍然没有答案的问题：“在其他恒星周围是否有像我们这样的行星，它们有多常见？”“这个项目正在解决一个被Astro 2010年十年调查列为三个最重要的研究领域之一的主题，在该调查中，天文学专业优先考虑未来10年的研究方向。 当然，公众对这些问题的答案很感兴趣，一个积极的推广和教育活动计划也将得到支持。该项目的资金由NSF天文科学部通过其先进技术和仪器计划提供。

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.