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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: duncan.wright@unsw.edu.au
Christopher G. Tinney
Affiliation:
University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia email: duncan.wright@unsw.edu.au
Robert A. Wittenmyer
Affiliation:
University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia email: duncan.wright@unsw.edu.au
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Abstract

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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 

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