Protostars and Planets VI, Heidelberg, July 15-20, 2013
Poster 2K019
The Replicable High-resolution Exoplanet and Asteroseismology (RHEA) spectrograph
Bento, Joao (Macquarie University)
Ireland, Michael (Macquarie University/AAO)
Feger, Tobias (Macquarie University)
Bacigalupo, Carlos (Macquarie University)
Bedding, Timothy (University of Sydney)
Parker, Quentin (Macquarie University/AAO)
Abstract:
The current limitations associated with detecting exoplanets using
Radial Velocity (RV) measurements include temperature stability of
spectrographs and efficient fibre scrambling in the quest for sub metre/
sec precision. However, an astrophysical fundamental limitation is also
present, in the form of noise from stellar activity. This is particularly
true for giant stars, where the amplitude of pulsations is comparable
with RV signals from hot-Jupiters. Long-baseline RV measurements are
required to measure the intrinsic pulsations of the host star and de-
correlate them to look for the planetary signals. This process uses
these data for asteroseismological analysis, which also provides
improved precision on the stellar mass and density. This is impractical
using large telescopes, but possible to do on bright stars with 0.3-1m
class telescopes. This poster presents the current status of the
Replicable High-Resolution Exoplanets and
Asteroseismology (RHEA) spectrograph, a compact single-mode
fibre-fed spectrograph being developed at Macquarie University. It will
serve the basis of a series of cheap spectrographs, composed of many
“off the shelf” items, to be deployed on small telescopes for exoplanet
and asteroseismological studies of giant stars, providing accessible
technology to address this exciting problem.
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