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

在其他恒星周围发现行星的数量惊人，有时还具有令人惊讶的物理性质，这是过去20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绕其运行的恒星的多普勒频移，并观察到行星的质量将恒星从其平均位置拉出少量时产生的非常小的反冲速度。行星的质量越小，恒星的运动就越小，测量就越困难。因此，观测像地球这样小的行星是一项特别具有挑战性的任务，只有在极高精度的光谱校准下才能完成。该项目将建立这样一个能够探测地外质量系外行星的校准系统。所采用的技术是近红外(NIR)激光频率梳和现场测试技术，能够将径向速度校准提高5倍或更多。一个完整的可供望远镜使用的子系统将于2015年部署在10米长的Hobby-Eberly望远镜上。一个测量低质量和低温M星的即时科学计划利用了精心稳定的光谱仪对近红外光的敏感性，以及新校准器的速度精度优于每秒一米。该项目将帮助解决一个基本但仍未得到解答的问题：“在其他恒星周围是否存在与我们的行星类似的行星？它们有多常见？”该项目针对的是天文领域在2010年十年十年调查中列出的三个最重要的研究领域之一。在该调查中，天文学专业确定了未来10年的研究方向。当然，公众对要回答的问题有广泛的兴趣，一个积极的外展和教育活动计划也将得到支持。这个项目的资金由NSF的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.