Precise Near-Infrared Motion Velocities of Stars

当在其他恒星周围发现行星时，必须进行非常精确的望远镜观测，以便天文学家能够了解它们的大小和运动。 这些研究人员已经建造了仪器并设计了可以非常精确地测量这些行星运动的技术;这些测量描述了围绕其恒星运行的行星。 该项目将提高调查人员进行这些精确测量的能力。 一种新的、更精确的望远镜仪器，称为iSHELL，取代了研究人员设计和用于开发这些观测方法的第一台仪器。 在这个项目中，研究人员将开发计算机程序和技术，以更彻底和准确地研究iSHELL的新望远镜数据。 这项研究符合国家利益，因为它促进了我们在了解其他恒星周围行星特征方面的进展。 主要研究员将为本科生和研究生，包括代表性不足的少数民族学生提供参与这一天文学研究的机会，这一项目将提高近红外线可获得的径向速度精度，以便对美国航天局凌日系外行星勘测卫星使命和地基望远镜勘测确定的候选系外行星进行径向速度跟踪。 3 m/s的近红外RV精度将使其有可能在M矮星的可居住区探测1-10颗地球质量的行星，并评估主序星和年轻恒星从可见光到近红外的恒星抖动的波长依赖性。 该项目建立在2010- 2015年成功的近红外精密RV仪器原型的基础上，该仪器使用了美国宇航局红望远镜设施的CSHELL仪器。 该合作调查了一个年轻运动的M矮星群样本和一个之前未被监测过的附近M矮星样本，确定了几颗候选系外行星。 iSHELL于2016年8月在IRTF首次亮相，取代了CSHELL。 由于光谱把握、分辨率、光学和探测器特性的改进，研究人员可能会使用iSHELL实现3 m/s的长期精度。 调查人员将调整CSHELL数据分析管道，使其适用于iSHELL数据。

When planets are discovered around other stars, very precise telescopic observations must be made so that astronomers can learn their size and motion. These investigators have built instruments and designed techniques that can measure the motions of these planets very precisely; these measurements describe the planets that are orbiting their stars. This project will improve the investigators' ability to make these precise measurements. A new, more precise telescopic instrument, called iSHELL, replaced the first instrument that the investigators designed and used to develop these observing methods. In this project the investigators will develop computer programs and techniques to study the new telescopic data from iSHELL more thoroughly and accurately. This research serves the national interest as it promotes our progress in understanding the characteristics of planets around other stars. The principal investigator will include opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students, including underrepresented minorities, to participate in this astronomical research.This project will advance the radial velocity (RV) precision obtainable in the near-infrared (NIR) for the RV follow-up of candidate exoplanets identified with the NASA Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite mission and ground-based telescopic surveys. An NIR RV precision of 3 m/s will make it possible to detect 1-10 Earth-mass planets in the habitable zones of M dwarf stars and to evaluate the wavelength dependence of stellar jitter from the visible to the near-infrared for main sequence and young stars. This project builds on the successful NIR precise RV instrumentation prototyped from 2010- 2015 using the CSHELL instrument at the NASA Infra-Red Telescope Facility. The collaboration surveyed a sample of young moving group M dwarfs and a sample of nearby M dwarfs that have not been previously monitored, identifying several candidate exoplanets. The iSHELL replaced CSHELL with first light at IRTF in August 2016. Owing to the improvements in spectral grasp, resolution, optics, and detector characteristics, the investigators will likely achieve a long-term precision of 3 m/s with iSHELL. The investigators will adapt the CSHELL data analysis pipeline for iSHELL data.