Astronomy:High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher

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Montage of the HARPS spectrograph and the 3.6m telescope at La Silla. The upper left shows the dome of the telescope, while the upper right illustrates the telescope itself. The HARPS spectrograph is shown in the lower image during laboratory tests. The vacuum tank is open so that some of the high-precision components inside can be seen

The High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS) is a high-precision echelle planet-finding spectrograph installed in 2002 on the ESO's 3.6m telescope at La Silla Observatory in Chile . The first light was achieved in February 2003. HARPS has discovered over 130 exoplanets to date, with the first one in 2004, making it the most successful planet finder behind the Kepler space observatory. It is a second-generation radial-velocity spectrograph, based on experience with the ELODIE and CORALIE instruments.[1]

Characteristics

The HARPS can attain a precision of 0.97 m/s (3.5 km/h),[2] making it one of only two instruments worldwide with such accuracy.[citation needed] This is due to a design in which the target star and a reference spectrum from a thorium lamp are observed simultaneously using two identical optic fibre feeds, and to careful attention to mechanical stability: the instrument sits in a vacuum vessel which is temperature-controlled to within 0.01 kelvins.[3] The precision and sensitivity of the instrument is such that it incidentally produced the best available measurement of the thorium spectrum.[citation needed] Planet-detection is in some cases limited by the seismic pulsations of the star observed rather than by limitations of the instrument.[4]

The principal investigator on the HARPS is Michel Mayor who, along with Didier Queloz and Stéphane Udry, have used the instrument to characterize the Gliese 581 planetary system, home to one of the smallest known exoplanets orbiting a normal star, and two super-Earths whose orbits lie in the star's habitable zone.[5]

It was initially used for a survey of one-thousand stars.[citation needed]

Since October 2012 the HARPS spectrograph has the precision to detect a new category of planets: habitable super-Earths. This sensitivity was expected from simulations of stellar intrinsic signals, and actual observations of planetary systems. Currently, the HARPS can detect habitable super-Earth only around low-mass stars as these are more affected by gravitational tug from planets and have habitable zones close to the host star.[6]

Discoveries

This is an incomplete list of exoplanets discovered by the HARPS. The list is sorted by the date of the discovery's announcement. As of December 2017, the list contains 134 exoplanets.

Gallery

  • HELIOS instrument installed to feed sunlight via fibre optics to the HARPS[7]

  • A decade of discoveries from HARPS[8]

  • HARPS spectrograph

  • HARPS spectrograph detail

  • Animation of HD 10180 with its seven planets

See also

ESO 3.6-metre telescope is home to the world's foremost exoplanet hunter, HARPS.[9]

Similar instruments:

Space based detectors :

Notes

  1. ↑ has a shorter period.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 This is an M sin i brown dwarf.
  3. ↑ This is a brown dwarf.

References

  1. ↑ Mayor, M.; Pepe, F.; Queloz, D.; Bouchy, F.; Rupprecht, G.; Lo Curto, G.; Avila, G.; Benz, W. et al. (2003). "Setting New Standards With HARPS". ESO Messenger 114: 20. Bibcode: 2003Msngr.114...20M. http://www.eso.org/sci/facilities/lasilla/instruments/harps/science/papers/harps_mess114.pdf. 
  2. ↑ "32 planets discovered outside solar system - CNN.com". CNN. 19 October 2009. http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/science/10/19/space.new.planets/index.html. 
  3. ↑ Lovis, Christophe; Pepe, Francesco; Bouchy, François; Lo Curto, Gaspare; Mayor, Michel; Pasquini, Luca; Queloz, Didier; Rupprecht, Gero et al. (2006). McLean, Ian S; Iye, Masanori. eds. "The exoplanet hunter HARPS: unequalled accuracy and perspectives toward 1 cm.s-1 precision". ESO. Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy 6269: 62690P. doi:10.1117/12.669991. Bibcode: 2006SPIE.6269E..0PL. http://www.eso.org/sci/facilities/lasilla/instruments/harps/science/papers/6269-25.pdf. Retrieved 14 September 2011. 
  4. ↑ Carrier; Eggenberger, P; Leyder, J-C (2008). "Asteroseismology of solar-type stars: particular physical effects". Journal of Physics: Conference Series 118 (1): 012047. doi:10.1088/1742-6596/118/1/012047. Bibcode: 2008JPhCS.118a2047C. http://www.iop.org/EJ/article/1742-6596/118/1/012047/jpconf8_118_012047.pdf. 
  5. ↑ Mayor, Michel; Bonfils, Xavier; Forveille, Thierry et al. (2009). "The HARPS search for southern extra-solar planets, XVIII. An Earth-mass planet in the GJ 581 planetary system". Astronomy and Astrophysics 507 (1): 487–494. doi:10.1051/0004-6361/200912172. Bibcode: 2009A&A...507..487M. http://obswww.unige.ch/~udry/Gl581_preprint.pdf. 
  6. ↑ Anglada-Escudé, Guillem; Amado, Pedro J.; Barnes, John et al. (2016). "A terrestrial planet candidate in a temperate orbit around Proxima Centauri". Nature 536 (7617): 437–440. doi:10.1038/nature19106. PMID 27558064. Bibcode: 2016Natur.536..437A. http://www.eso.org/public/archives/releases/sciencepapers/eso1629/eso1629a.pdf. 
  7. ↑ "HARPS Sees Sunshine for the First Time". https://www.eso.org/public/announcements/ann18033/. 
  8. ↑ "A decade of discoveries from HARPS". http://www.eso.org/public/unitedkingdom/images/ann13075a/. 
  9. ↑ "A Sparkling Ribbon of Stars — The Southern Milky Way over La Silla". ESO Picture of the Week. http://www.eso.org/public/images/potw1314a/. 

External links



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