1. CARMENES: high-resolution spectra and precise radial velocities in the red and infrared
- Author
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R. Gonzalez Peinado, Ralf Launhardt, Lluis Gesa, C. del Burgo, F. F. Bauer, M. Doellinger, R. P. Hedrosa, J. Carro, Jose A. Caballero, Z. M. Berdiñas, D. Montes, Ulrich Mall, M. Blümcke, M. Kehr, S. Schäfer, D. Pérez-Medialdea, M. Salz, Mercedes López-Morales, E. N. Johnson, V. Wolthoff, A. Rosich, Mathias Zechmeister, P. Redondo, E. Mirabet, E. Díez-Alonso, Johana Panduro, L. Hernández Castaño, P. Rhode, I. Hermelo, David Barrado, Enric Palle, Walter Seifert, Manuel Perger, Javier López-Santiago, D. Benítez, E. Herrero, S. Sabotta, Víctor J. S. Béjar, M. L. García-Vargas, S. Becerril, M. J. López González, Rainer Lenzen, Luigi Mancini, M. Lafarga, A. Kaminski, P. Schöfer, M. E. Moreno-Raya, R.-R. Rohloff, H. W. Rix, C. J. Marvin, Ignasi Ribas, R. Garrido, J. A. Marín Molina, D. Hermann, Emilio Marfil, J. H. M. M. Schmitt, M. Pluto, M. Cortés-Contreras, Reinhard Mundt, M. A. Sánchez Carrasco, L. González-Cuesta, Th. Henning, J. Klüter, M. Tala Pinto, D. Galadí-Enríquez, P. Huke, J. Pascual, M. López del Fresno, Grzegorz Nowak, Trifon Trifonov, M. Llamas, P. H. Hauschildt, G. Veredas, N. Lodieu, E. de Juan, J. B. P. Strachan, S. Sadegi, W. Xu, O. Herbort, E. de Guindos, J. Sanz-Forcada, M. Lampón, Michael Perryman, K. F. Huber, Josep Colomé, Denis Shulyak, M. Kim, J. Aceituno, Lisa Nortmann, Andreas Quirrenbach, Juan Carlos Suárez, C. Cardona Guillén, Ana Pérez-Calpena, A. Claret, Martin Kürster, Werner Laun, J. Cano, Lev Tal-Or, A. Garcia-Piquer, F. J. Alonso-Floriano, B. Arroyo-Torres, A. Klutsch, Hubert Klahr, H. Martínez-Rodríguez, Ulrich Grözinger, O. Stahl, S. Pedraz, S. Martin-Ruiz, M. Azzaro, J. L. Lizon, C. Feiz, Manuel López-Puertas, M. Ammler-von Eiff, M. R. Zapatero Osorio, Rafael Luque, I. Gallardo, Guillem Anglada-Escudé, L. Sairam, J. F. López Salas, H. Mandel, A. Ramón, D. Hidalgo, N. Labiche, J. Guàrdia, F. Hernández Hernando, U. Lemke, Francesc Vilardell, E. González-Álvarez, J. Stürmer, Hugo M. Tabernero, G. Bergondy, R. Hernández Arabí, Vianak Naranjo, J. Winkler, Armin Huber, Fei Yan, B. Fuhrmeister, Rafael Rebolo, Simon Tulloch, Ansgar Reiners, F. J. Lázaro, A. P. Hatzes, H. Magán Madinabeitia, Paula Sarkis, J. Helmling, Z. Zhao, Sabine Reffert, E. Casal, A. Sánchez-López, M. C. Gálvez-Ortiz, J. I. González Hernández, D. Hintz, D. Baroch, A. Lamert, E. L. Martín, A. Schweitzer, Evangelos Nagel, V. Gómez Galera, M. Fernández, A. Guijarro, C. Cifuentes, E. Sánchez-Blanco, R. G. Ulbrich, Carlo Schmidt, F. Labarga, Pedro J. Amado, V. M. Passegger, F. J. Abellán, S. Grohnert, F. Rodler, Ricardo Dorda, Clemens Storz, G. Gaisné, K. Frölich, A. Moya, Juan Carlos Morales, E. W. Guenther, E. Rodriguez, H. J. Hagen, Ralf Klein, D. Maroto Fernández, I. M. Ferro, Karl Wagner, L. M. Lara, S. Dreizler, S. Czesla, M. Brinkmöller, M. C. Cardenas, Enrique Solano, M. Vidal-Dasilva, C. Rodríguez López, M. Abril, G. Holgado, J. Schiller, L. F. Sarmiento, A. Pavlov, H. Anwand-Heerwart, S. V. Jeffers, S. Reinhart, J. L. Vico Linares, and Richard J. Mathar
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Astrofísica ,Astrophysics::Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics ,7. Clean energy ,01 natural sciences ,010309 optics ,Planet ,Spectrographs ,Cool Stars ,0103 physical sciences ,Astrophysics::Solar and Stellar Astrophysics ,Transit (astronomy) ,M Dwarfs ,010303 astronomy & astrophysics ,Astrophysics::Galaxy Astrophysics ,Physics ,Optical Instrumentation ,Astrophysics::Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics ,Astronomy ,Extrasolar Planets ,Exoplanet ,Radial velocity ,Stars ,13. Climate action ,Terrestrial planet ,Spectral atlas ,Astrophysics::Earth and Planetary Astrophysics ,Circumstellar habitable zone ,Near-Infrared Instrumentation - Abstract
The design and construction of CARMENES has been presented at previous SPIE conferences. It is a next-generation radial-velocity instrument at the 3.5m telescope of the Calar Alto Observatory, which was built by a consortium of eleven Spanish and German institutions. CARMENES consists of two separate échelle spectrographs covering the wavelength range from 0.52 to 1.71¿m at a spec-tral resolution of R < 80,000, fed by fibers from the Cassegrain focus of the telescope. CARMENES saw ¿First Light¿ on Nov 9, 2015. During the commissioning and initial operation phases, we established basic performance data such as throughput and spectral resolution. We found that our hollow-cathode lamps are suitable for precise wavelength calibration, but their spectra contain a number of lines of neon or argon that are so bright that the lamps cannot be used in simultaneous exposures with stars. We have therefore adopted a calibration procedure that uses simultaneous star / Fabry Pérot etalon exposures in combination with a cross-calibration between the etalons and hollow-cathode lamps during daytime. With this strategy it has been possible to achieve 1-2 m/s precision in the visible and 5-10 m/s precision in the near-IR; further improvements are expected from ongoing work on temperature control, calibration procedures and data reduction. Comparing the RV precision achieved in different wavelength bands, we find a ¿sweet spot¿ between 0.7 and 0.8¿m, where deep TiO bands provide rich RV information in mid-M dwarfs. This is in contrast to our pre-survey models, which predicted comparatively better performance in the near-IR around 1¿m, and explains in part why our near-IR RVs do not reach the same precision level as those taken with the visible spectrograph. We are now conducting a large survey of 340 nearby M dwarfs (with an average distance of only 12pc), with the goal of finding terrestrial planets in their habitable zones. We have detected the signatures of several previously known or suspected planets and also discovered several new planets. We find that the radial velocity periodograms of many M dwarfs show several significant peaks. The development of robust methods to distinguish planet signatures from activity-induced radial velocity jitter is therefore among our priorities. Due to its large wavelength coverage, the CARMENES survey is generating a unique data set for studies of M star atmospheres, rotation, and activity. The spectra cover important diagnostic lines for activity (H alpha, Na I D1 and D2, and the Ca II infrared triplet), as well as FeH lines, from which the magnetic field can be inferred. Correlating the time series of these features with each other, and with wavelength-dependent radial velocities, provides excellent handles for the discrimination between planetary companions and stellar radial velocity jitter. These data are also generating new insight into the physical properties of M dwarf atmospheres, and the impact of activity and flares on the habitability of M star planets. © 2018 SPIE., CARMENES is an instrument for the Centro Astronomico Hispano-Aleman de Calar Alto (CAHA, Almeria, Spain). CARMENES is funded by the German Max-Planck-Gesellschaft (MPG), the Spanish Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (CSIC), the European Union through FEDER/ERF FICTS-2011-02 funds, and the members of the CARMENES Consortium (Max-Planck-Institut fur Astronomie, Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia, Landessternwarte Konigstuhl, Institut de Ciencies de l'Espai, Insitut fur Astrophysik Gottingen, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Thuringer Landessternwarte Tautenburg, Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias, Hamburger Sternwarte, Centro de Astrobiologia and Centro Astronomico Hispano-Aleman), with additional contributions by the Spanish Ministry of Science, the German Science Foundation through the Major Research Instrumentation Program and DFG Research Unit FOR2544 "Blue Planets around Red Stars", the Klaus Tschira Stiftung, the states of Baden-Wurttemberg and Niedersachsen, and by the Junta de Andalucia.
- Published
- 2018