Support for the Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO) WIYN 3.5-meter Telescope Facility

Association Of Universities For Research In Astronomy, Inc., Tucson AZ

Investigators

Abstract

Many stars in our galaxy host one or more planets. With this award, the WIYN telescope at the Kitt Peak National Observatory near Tucson will continue to be used primarily to measure the velocities and masses of these “exoplanets”. Masses are needed to determine if an exoplanet is primarily gaseous, icy, or rocky. Research enabled by this program will strengthen the foundations for identifying and characterizing Earth-like exoplanets in the nearby cosmos. The primary instrument being used at WIYN, known as NEID, exceeds its technical requirements and routinely measures planet velocities to better than a meter per second. This proposal will fund the next 45 months of NSF’s contribution to WIYN operations, in support of the NASA-NSF Exoplanet Observational Research (NN-EXPLORE) Program. NN-EXPLORE brings together federal agencies, federal research centers, and U.S. universities, with the goal of advancing research in exoplanets. The open access for enquiry-based research via peer review and open data facilitated by this award will allow scientists and citizens to engage in the WIYN research enterprise no matter who they are or where they work. Many participants are early career scientists and undergraduate students. Under this award, NSF’s National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory (NOIRLab) will continue to operate the WIYN telescope from 2024 through 2027 as NSF’s contribution to the NN-EXPLORE program. NN-EXPLORE enables scientific research related to the characterization of exoplanets and their host stars. NEID is the only open-access extreme-precision radial velocity instrument in the U.S. that has the technical capability and the required years-long and high cadence (approximately every other night) time on sky to meet the goal of identifying nearby habitable planets, following up on discoveries by NASA missions like Kepler and TESS, picking key targets for the James Webb and Roman Space Telescopes, and blazing the path forward to enable NASA’s future Habitable Worlds Observatory. This award provides support for essential operations and maintenance of WIYN, as well as minor technological upgrades needed for the continued operation of NEID. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.