Turn-Key Green Astro-Comb.

对系外行星（即围绕太阳以外的恒星运行的行星）的搜索正在快速推进。这一领域的进步很大程度上是由我们的技术能力推动的，我们可以制造仪器来测量恒星的光的微小径向速度变化，当它的行星或行星将它拉向我们或远离我们时，在恒星光谱中产生微小的“多普勒”位移，揭示轨道上的同伴。反过来，这项技术在很大程度上受到我们校准行星搜寻仪器的能力的限制。校准识别出虚假的误差，否则会模拟静止恒星的径向运动。在这种情况下，该提案旨在建立一个易于操作的校准系统，该系统将产生一个梳状的光，其峰值输出在波长上间隔，梳状尺度足够精细，以显着推进当前行星搜寻仪器的艺术状态。正在建造的校准器将是自动化的，并打算用于位于加那利群岛TNG望远镜上的HARPS-N光谱仪。它将是一个“交钥匙”，易于操作的天文梳，产生可见光谱（~500-620 nm）的输出，并将在任意长时间内以10厘米/秒的灵敏度进行精确的径向速度测量。该校准器将供望远镜操作员和观测者使用，而不需要激光科学家在场。科学由此得以实现，包括确定类地系外行星的质量，直接测量年轻宇宙的加速度，以及研究宇宙时间尺度上基本常数的恒常性。本项目将在超快光学物理与天文仪器建造和观测的界面上培养学生和博士后科研人员的科学实践能力。待开发的技术将有助于在诸如少周期光脉冲、分子光谱学和生物成像等领域广泛的跨学科和商业应用。该项目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资金。

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.