The Solar Twin Planet Search

该项目将完成对太阳双星的径向速度和丰度调查，以测试恒星金属丰度对行星形成过程的重要性的模型。该小组将使用HARPS仪器，并计划使用新的观测和数据简化技术，比以前更可靠地估计丰度。 他们已经为这个项目获得了四年的时间。其中一个重点将是集中精力观测与太阳非常相似的恒星中锂和其他难熔物质的丰度。恒星和它们的行星被认为是从坍缩的分子云的同一碎片中产生的。因此，一颗星星的性质可能反映了其行星形成时的物理条件，而研究行星与其宿主恒星之间的关系可以深入了解行星形成和演化的过程。 恒星金属丰度和巨行星频率之间的强正相关性就是这种关系的一个例子。在天文学中，金属丰度通常被定义为除氢和氦之外的所有元素的丰度。这项工作的更广泛影响包括培训研究生，将一些数据纳入本科课程，与巴西和澳大利亚的科学家进行国际合作，并通过在科普杂志上发表关于系外行星的文章与公众进行交流。

This project will complete a radial velocity and abundance survey of Solar Twin stars to test models of the importance of stellar metallicity to planet formation processes. The team will use the HARPS instrument and plans to estimate abundances more reliably than before using new observing and data reduction techniques. They have already been awarded four years of time for this project. One focus will be to concentrate on observing lithium and other refractory abundances in stars that greatly resemble the Sun.Stars and their planets are thought to arise from the same fragment of a collapsed molecular cloud. Consequently, a star's properties likely reflect the physical conditions of the disk its planets formed in, and the study of relationships between planets' and their host stars' characteristics can give insight to the processes that govern planet formation and evolution. The observed strong positive correlation between stellar metallicity and giant planet frequency is an example of such a relationship. In astronomy, metallicity is generally defined as the abundance of all elements other than hydrogen and helium. Broader impacts of the work include training a graduate student in research, incorporating some of the data in undergraduate courses, an international collaboration with scientists in Brazil and Australia, and communicating with the public through articles on exoplanets in popular science magazines.