Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-q99xh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T10:31:03.246Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Habitable Zone Super-Earths with Non-Stabilised Spectrographs

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 April 2014

Duncan J. Wright
Affiliation:
University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia email: [email protected]
Christopher G. Tinney
Affiliation:
University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia email: [email protected]
Robert A. Wittenmyer
Affiliation:
University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia email: [email protected]
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Detecting the small velocity amplitudes (≤ 10 m/s) produced by habitable zone rocky planets around M Dwarfs requires radial velocity precisions of a few m s−1. However, an iodine absorption cell, commonly used as a high precision wavelength reference on non-stabilised spectrographs, is not efficient for very red and faint objects like M Dwarfs. Instead, arc lamps have to be used. With the exception of the ultra-stabilised HARPS spectrograph, achieving ~m s−1 calibration with arc lamps has not been possible because typical spectrographs experience drifts of several hundred m s−1 due to local atmospheric changes in pressure and temperature. We outline and present results from an innovative differential wavelength calibration method that enables ~m s−1 precision from non-stabilised, high-resolution spectrographs. This technique allows the detection of rocky planets with radial velocity amplitudes of a few m s−1.

Type
Contributed Papers
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2014 

References

Bonfils, X., Delfosse, X., Udry, S., Forveille, T., Mayor, M., Perrier, C., Bouchy, F., Gillon, M., Lovis, C., Pepe, F., Queloz, D., Santos, N. C., Sgransan, D., & Bertaux, J.-L. 2013, 549, A109Google Scholar
Barnes, J. R., Jenkins, J. S., Jones, H. R. A., Rojo, P., Arriagada, P., Jordn, A., Minniti, D., Tuomi, M., Jeffers, S. V., & Pinfield, D. 2012, MNRAS V. 424, pp. 591604Google Scholar
Bean, Jacob L., Seifahrt, Andreas, Hartman, Henrik, Nilsson, Hampus, Wiedemann, Gnter, Reiners, Ansgar, Dreizler, Stefan, Henry, , & Todd, J. 2010, ApJ V. 713, pp. 410422CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bailey, John I. III, White, Russel J., Blake, Cullen H., Charbonneau, Dave Barman, Travis, S., Tanner, Angelle M. & Torres, Guillermo 2012, ApJ V. 749, art. 16CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Redman, Stephen L., Lawler, James E., Nave, Gillian, Ramsey, Lawrence W. & Mahadevan, Suvrath 2011, ApJS V. 195, art. 24CrossRefGoogle Scholar