1. CARMENES. I: instrument and survey overview
- Author
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Rainer Ulbrich, Thomas Henning, Susana Martín-Ruiz, Jorge Sanz-Forcada, A. Klutsch, Rafael Morales Muñoz, David Barrado y Navascués, Martin Kürster, Enrique de Guindos, Guillem Anglada-Escudé, M. Pluto, Eike W. Guenther, Jean-Louis Lizon, Ovidio Rabaza, Cristina López, Sabine Reffert, Ralf-Reiner Rohloff, E. Herrero, Peter H. Hauschildt, E. Solano, Johannes Winkler, Rainer Lenzen, Clemens Storz, Miguel A. Sánchez Carrasco, Carlos del Burgo, Klaus Huber, Jesús Aceituno, H. Anwand-Heerwart, Regina Antona Jiménez, Maria Rosa Zapatero Osorio, Ansgar Reiners, C. Feiz, Ignasi Ribas, Otmar Stahl, D. Galadí, Emilio Rodríguez Pérez, E. Rodriguez, Ricardo Dorda, Werner Laun, Petra Rhode, A. Ramón, Jürgen H. M. M. Schmitt, S. Lalitha, W. Xu, Juan Gutiérrez-Soto, Hans Hagen, Javier Alonso-Floriano, Matilde Fernández, M. Cortés-Contreras, J. Guàrdia, A. Moya, Concepcion Cardenas, Reinhard Mundt, U. Lemke, Javier López-Santiago, Ernesto Sánchez-Blanco, Enrique de Juan, Mercedes Lopez-Morales, Sebastian Schafer, Juan Carlos Suárez, Florian Rodler, Viki Joergens, D. Montes, A. Rodríguez Trinidad, Jörg Schiller, Julian Stürmer, Vianak Naranjo, Karl Wagner, Andreas Quirrenbach, Artie P. Hatzes, Ulrich Thiele, Rafael Rebolo, R. Oreiro, S. Czesla, Miguel Abril, Stefan Dreizler, Eduardo L. Martín, Jose A. Caballero, Antonio Claret, Josep Colomé, Michaela Doellinger, Jonay I. González Hernández, Armin Huber, Pedro J. Amado, Juan Carlos Morales, Hans-Walter Rix, Mauro López del Fresno, Mathias Zechmeister, Walter Seifert, S. Becerril, Eduard Mirabet, V. J. S. Béjar, M. Kehr, J. Helmling, R. Garrido, Daniel Benitez, C. Schmidt, Sandra V. Jeffers, Matthias Ammler-von Eiff, David Pérez Medialdea, Ulrich Mall, Manuela Vidal-Dasilva, and Holger Mandel
- Subjects
Physics ,Astrophysics::Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics ,Astronomy ,Cassegrain reflector ,Astrophysics::Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics ,Astrophysics ,Exoplanet ,law.invention ,Telescope ,Observatory ,law ,Planet ,Astrophysics::Solar and Stellar Astrophysics ,Terrestrial planet ,Astrophysics::Earth and Planetary Astrophysics ,Spectral resolution ,Circumstellar habitable zone ,Astrophysics::Galaxy Astrophysics - Abstract
CARMENES (Calar Alto high-Resolution search for M dwarfs with Exo-earths with Near-infrared and optical Echelle Spectrographs) is a next-generation instrument for the 3.5m telescope at the Calar Alto Observatory, built by a consortium of eleven Spanish and German institutions. The CARMENES instrument consists of two separate echelle spectrographs covering the wavelength range from 0.55 μm to 1.7 μm at a spectral resolution of R = 82, 000, fed by fibers from the Cassegrain focus of the telescope. Both spectrographs are housed in temperature-stabilized vacuum tanks, to enable a long-term 1 m/s radial velocity precision employing a simultaneous calibration with Th-Ne and U-Ne emission line lamps. CARMENES has been optimized for a search for terrestrial planets in the habitable zones (HZs) of low-mass stars, which may well provide our first chance to study environments capable of supporting the development of life outside the Solar System. With its unique combination of optical and near-infrared ´echelle spectrographs, CARMENES will provide better sensitivity for the detection of low-mass planets than any comparable instrument, and a powerful tool for discriminating between genuine planet detections and false positives caused by stellar activity. The CARMENES survey will target 300 M dwarfs in the 2014 to 2018 time frame.
- Published
- 2012
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