STABLE_FABRY · Calibration of Astronomical Spectrographs with Stabilized Fabry-Perot Etalons
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2016-04-15 → 2018-04-30
- EU contribution
- €159,461
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF-EF-ST
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Calibration of Astronomical Spectrographs with Stabilized Fabry-Perot Etalons
Over the past twenty years, planets orbiting other stars have become an important research topic, capturing the interest of scientists and the general public alike. Detecting such objects requires very precise astronomical measurments. One technique that has been very successful for this research is the so-called radial-velocity technique. It measures the motion of the star due to the gravitational pull of the planet, therefore we can learn about the existence of the planet, and even about its mass, without ever actually seeing it. An important prerequisite for such measurements is the availability of calibration sources, which provide very stable references with which the motion of the star can be compared. The objective of this project is the development of a new type of calibration source, which is more reliable and costs less than alternative technologies.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
The “holy grail” of exoplanet research today is the detection of an Earth-like planet in the habitable zone of a Sun-like star. Doppler spectroscopy is an indispensable tool for finding and characterizing extrasolar planets; however, detecting an Earth twin by measuring the radial velocity (RV) perturbation it imposes on the parent star requires nearly one order of magnitude better RV precision than the best current spectrographs provide. A key component in addressing the limitations of existing instruments is the development of extremely precise calibration light sources that can be used to track drifts and imperfections of the spectrograph, removing them from the science data. A stable, reliable, and relatively inexpensive calibrator solves a “chicken and egg” problem in the field – motivating the building of more stable spectrographs, secure in the knowledge that they will be able to perform to their potential. Project STABLE_FABRY consists of developing a novel calibration technique that can be applied to a wide range of high resolution spectrographs. This technique uses a broadband Fabry-Perot etalon to provide the calibration spectrum; the etalon is stabilized by referencing it to an atomic transition using standard laser spectroscopy methods. Our preliminary work already indicates that a stability of 3 cm/s can be reached with this method, making it precise enough for detection of Earth-like planets. The only other currently available calibration technology with demonstrated precision at that level is the laser frequency comb, which is an order of magnitude more complex and significantly more expensive. Our technique can easily be adapted to different echelle spectrographs in the visible and near infrared by simply using an etalon optimized for that particular spectrograph. Developing this concept into an observatory-ready system will present a major breakthrough for high precision spectrographs, enabling detections of Earth twins with Doppler spectroscopy.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- RUPRECHT-KARLS-UNIVERSITAET HEIDELBERG · HeidelbergCoordinatorGermany
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union