THE DISCOVERY OF THE FIRST 700 EXTRASOLAR PLANETS HAVE HAD A PROFOUND IMPACT ON SCIENCE AND SOCIETY. THE 2000 DECADAL SURVEY OFASTRONOMY&ASTROPHYSICS CITES THE DISCOVERY OF EXTRASOLAR PLANETS AS THE MOST IMPORTANT ADVANCE OF THE PREVIOUS DECADE. THE 2010DECADAL SURVEY CITES EXTRASOLAR PLANETS AS ONE OF THE THREE PILLARS OF MODERN ASTROPHYSICS AND EXPLICITLY STATES THAT THE DISCOVERYOF POTENTIALLY HABITABLE PLANETS AROUND NEARBY STARS IS THE HIGHEST PRIORITY FOR THE NEXT DECADE. MOST OF THE PLANETS THAT HAVEBEEN DISCOVERED ORBITING NEARBY STARS ARE MASSIVE GAS GIANTS FOUND WITH DOPPLER VELOCITY SYSTEMS THAT HAVE ACHIEVED 3 TO 10 M/S.THIS FIRST GENERATION OF EXOPLANETS HAD AMPLITUDES OF 50 M/S OR MORE AND COULD BE DETECTED WITH SPARSE SAMPLING. TERRESTRIALMASS AND SUPER-EARTH PLANETS IN HABITABLE 1 AU ORBITS AROUND G DWARFS HAVE DOPPLER AMPLITUDES OF LESS THAN 0.5 M/S AND ARECURRENTLY UNDETECTABLE. DUE TO THEIR LOWER MASS AND BRIGHTNESS THE HABITABLE LIQUID WATER ZONE AROUND M DWARFS IS AT 0.1 TO 0.2AU WITH CORRESPONDING DOPPLER VELOCITY AMPLITUDES OF 2 TO 5 M/S. THESE PLANETS ARE TYPICALLY IN MULTIPLE PLANET SYSTEMS IN WHICHSEVERAL PLANETS HAVE SIMILAR AMPLITUDES LEADING TO COMPLEX DOPPLER VELOCITY SIGNALS. THESE PLANETS CAN BE DETECTED WITH HIGHCADENCE OBSERVATIONS THAT ACHIEVE STATE-OF-THE-ART PRECISION OF 1 M/S. WHILE M DWARFS CONSTITUTE 70% OF THE NEAREST STARS THEY ARESIGNIFICANTLY FAINTER THAN NEARBY G&K DWARFS AND REQUIRE LARGE TELESCOPES TO REACH 1 M/S PRECISION. WE HAVE BUILT THE FIRSTAMERICAN DOPPLER VELOCITY SYSTEM THAT PRODUCES 1 M/S PRECISION. THE PLANET FINDING SPECTROMETER (PFS) ON MAGELLAN HAS BEENCUSTOM BUILT FOR PRECISION VELOCITY MEASUREMENTS. COMPARED TO HIRES ON KECK PFS IS MECHANICALLY AND THERMALLY STABILIZED HAS TRIPLE THE THROUGHPUT OPERATES AT HIGHER RESOLUTION AND HAD 50% GREATER SAMPLING. PFS ON MAGELLAN IS SLIGHTLY FASTER THANHIRES ON KECK IN SPITE OF THE DIFFERENCE IN APERTURE 6.5-M VS 10-M. WE ARE CURRENTLY RECEIVING ~50 NIGHTS PER YEAR ON MAGELLAN/PFS TO TARGET THE NEAREST M DWARFS WITH HIGH CADENCE OBSERVATIONS. OVER THE NEXT 3 YEARS WE WILL SURVEY THE NEAREST 200 M DWARFSWITH SUFFICIENT PRECISION AND CADENCE TO DETECT TERRESTRIAL MASS AND SUPER-EARTH PLANETS IN THE HABITABLE ZONE OF THESE STARS. AFTERJUST TWO HIGH CADENCE OBSERVING RUNS WE ALREADY HAVE CANDIDATES. OVER THE PAST QUARTER CENTURY OUR PLANET SURVEYS INITIALLY ATLICK AND LATER AT KECK AND THE AAT HAVE HAD A BROAD SOCIETAL AND SCIENTIFIC IMPACT INCLUDING THE DISCOVERY OF HALF OF THE KNOWNPLANETS ORBITING NEARBY STARS. OUR WORK HAS BEEN CREDITED WITH PROVIDING THE MOTIVATION FOR THE NEW DISCIPLINES OF ASTROBIOLOGY ANDEXTRASOLAR PLANET STUDIES. ALL THE IODINE PRECISION VELOCITY SYSTEMS IN THE WORLD ARE BASED ON OUR ORIGINAL SYSTEM ON THE LICK 3-M(BUTLER ET AL. 1996). FOR US THE PFS/MAGELLAN SYSTEM IS THE CULMINATION OF 25 YEARS OF WORK LEADING TO THE DETECTION OF POTENTIALLYHABITABLE PLANETS.
$249,800FY2014National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationNASA
Carnegie Institution Of Washington, Washington DC