The Doppler technique is a key tool for discovering and characterizing planets orbiting other stars. By measuring the reflex motion of the host star as the star and planet orbit a common center of mass, “extrasolar” planets can be discovered and, in some cases, the masses of those planets directly measured. Over the past three decades, advances in technology have enabled some spectrometers to achieve 1 m/s radial velocity precision for Sun-like stars. However, detecting analogs of any of the terrestrial planets in our solar system will require substantially better precision - Earth induces a 10 cm/s motion in the Sun. It has been a long-term goal in the community to achieve Doppler measurement precision sufficient to detect an Earth analog, but a host of astrophysical and instrumental noise sources become important below 1 m/s. I will describe two upcoming Doppler spectrometers designed for detecting and characterizing small planets – NEID, which will be deployed this year to the WIYN telescope at Kitt Peak in Arizona, and MINERVA-Red, which will also be deployed this year to Mt. Hopkins in Arizona.
1080 Physics Research Building - Smith Seminar Room - Reception at 3:30 pm prior to the talk Department of Physics physics@osu.edu America/New_York publicThe Doppler technique is a key tool for discovering and characterizing planets orbiting other stars. By measuring the reflex motion of the host star as the star and planet orbit a common center of mass, “extrasolar” planets can be discovered and, in some cases, the masses of those planets directly measured. Over the past three decades, advances in technology have enabled some spectrometers to achieve 1 m/s radial velocity precision for Sun-like stars. However, detecting analogs of any of the terrestrial planets in our solar system will require substantially better precision - Earth induces a 10 cm/s motion in the Sun. It has been a long-term goal in the community to achieve Doppler measurement precision sufficient to detect an Earth analog, but a host of astrophysical and instrumental noise sources become important below 1 m/s. I will describe two upcoming Doppler spectrometers designed for detecting and characterizing small planets – NEID, which will be deployed this year to the WIYN telescope at Kitt Peak in Arizona, and MINERVA-Red, which will also be deployed this year to Mt. Hopkins in Arizona.
