Development of Instrumentation for Ultra-Precise Radial Velocity Measurements

该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。至少有四种方法可以探测绕星星运行的行星。到目前为止，最成功的方法是非常仔细地监测星星的速度。如果速度在其平均值附近有规律地变化，那么我们就有可能测量的是行星在轨道上围绕星星运动时的反射速度。这是一个非常精确的测量，它依赖于用摄谱仪进行的极其精确的速度测量。目前的技术已经探测到300多颗行星，但没有一颗可能支持生命;其中大多数是像木星这样的气体巨星。 为了到达更小的类地行星，有必要提高测量的精度。史密森天体物理天文台的安德鲁·森特乔基博士正在设计一种非常稳定和精确的校准机制，以改善这些径向速度测量。Szentgyorgyi博士的波长校准方案使用一种非常快速的脉冲激光，在星星的光谱上印上一个规则间隔的校准“梳子”，这些线具有精确的已知波长。这项新技术有望从目前的标准中改进速度测定，足以探测到宜居带中的类地行星。这项工作的资金由NSF的主要研究仪器计划通过天文科学部提供。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).There are at least four ways to detect a planet orbiting a star. By far the most successful means to date has been to very carefully monitor the velocity of the star. If the velocity tends to vary regularly about its average value, then it is possible that we are measuring the reflex velocity of the star as a planet moves around it in its orbit. This is a very exacting measurement to make and it relies on extremely accurate velocity measurements made with a spectrograph. Current technology has resulted in over 300 planet detections, but none of these is likely to support life; most of them are gas giants like Jupiter. To reach smaller earth-like planets it is necessary to increase the precision of the measurements. Dr. Andrew Szentgyorgyi of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory is designing a very stable and accurate calibration mechanism to improve these radial velocity measurements. Dr. Szentgyorgyi's wavelength calibration scheme uses a very rapidly pulsed laser to imprint a regularly spaced calibration "comb" of lines of precisely known wavelengths onto the spectrum of the star. This new technique is expected to improve the velocity determination from the current standard enough to detect earth-like planets in the habitable zone. Funding for this work is being provided by NSF's Major Research Instrumentation program through the Division of Astronomical Sciences.