Collaborative Research: Develop A Bright, Ultrastable Optical Wavelength Calibrator for Exoplanet and Cosmology Research

Smithsonian Institution Astrophysical Observatory, Cambridge MA

Investigators

Abstract

This award is for a project to build an ultra-stable frequency calibrator for high resolution optical spectrography using a comb laser. The purpose of developing such a system is to be able to extend the indirect detection of extra-solar planets to lower mass objects, i.e. those comparable to the Solar System's terrestrial planets rather than the gas-giants. The indirect spectroscopic techniques have proven to be successful at finding extra-solar planets and the technology to be developed in this award will permit the spectral line positional changes of the parent star, which infer the existence and mass of a planetary companion, to be measured to significantly higher accuracy than before, thereby extending the technique to lower mass planets. The award will demonstrate that comb lasers can be used for this application and the technology and techniques will be distributed to the general community. In addition, undergraduate and graduate students will undergo training in instrumentation. This is a very topical field and the existence of extra-solar planets, especially those resembling the Earth, will capture the public imagination.