Calibration of Astronomical Spectrographs with Stabilized Fabry-Perot Etalons

Projektinformationen

STABLE_FABRY

ID Finanzhilfevereinbarung: 659985

DOI

10.3030/659985

Projekt abgeschlossen

EK-Unterschriftsdatum 17 April 2015

Startdatum 15 April 2016

Enddatum 30 April 2018

Finanziert unter

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Gesamtkosten

€ 159 460,80

EU-Beitrag

€ 159 460,80

Koordiniert durch

RUPRECHT-KARLS-UNIVERSITAET HEIDELBERG
Germany

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - STABLE_FABRY (Calibration of Astronomical Spectrographs with Stabilized Fabry-Perot Etalons)

Berichtszeitraum: 2016-04-15 bis 2018-04-14

Zusammenfassung vom Kontext und den Gesamtzielen des Projekts

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.

Arbeit, die ab Beginn des Projekts bis zum Ende des durch den Bericht erfassten Berichtszeitraums geleistet wurde, und die wichtigsten bis dahin erzielten Ergebnisse

The measurement priniciple for detecting small motions of the star is based on the so-called Doppler effect. The stellar spectrum contains many sharp lines, and these move slightly in wavelength (i.e. they change slightly in color) when the star moves towards the telecope or away from it. Our calibration source also produces many sharp spectral lines. At the telescope, the light from both the star and the calibration source are fed with optical fibers into a spectrograph, where the line positions can be compared. We have demonstrated that we can use a laser to keep the calibrations lines fixed over a long time with extremely high precision, and we have built a robust package for our calibration source that can be used at an observatory, where very high reliability is needed. The production and maintenance costs of our system are much lower than those of much the more complex calibration systems that are currently used by some observatories.

Fortschritte, die über den aktuellen Stand der Technik hinausgehen und voraussichtliche potenzielle Auswirkungen (einschließlich der bis dato erzielten sozioökonomischen Auswirkungen und weiter gefassten gesellschaftlichen Auswirkungen des Projekts)

Our calibrations system is based on a physical method that has been known and used in laboratories around the world for many years. The important progress beyond the state of the art was making the system compact and robust enough to put it in a sealed box that can be used easily at any observatory, without the need of employing laser specialists, or of having the system serviced by a company in regular intervals. Therefore a number of world-leading observatories are planning to use our system for their next-generation instruments. Our project will thus make an imporant contribution to further research on extrasolar planets; perhaps it will help to identify a planet that could harbor life.

Small is beautiful: This sealed box contains the laser at the heart of the calibration system.