16th April 2009
EMBARGOED UNTIL 0001 BST, 20TH APRIL 2009
Ref.: RAS PN 09/20 (NAM 7)
Issued by:
Dr Robert Massey
Press and Policy Officer
Royal Astronomical Society
Burlington House
Piccadilly
London W1J 0BQ
Tel: +44 (0)20 7734 3307 / 4582
Mob: +44 (0)794 124 8035
E-mail: rm@ras.org.uk
and
Anita Heward
Press Officer
Royal Astronomical Society
Mob: +44 (0)7756 034 243
E-mail: anitaheward@btopenworld.com
RAS website: http://www.ras.org.uk
EWASS meeting press room (20th – 23rd April only)
Tel:
+44 (0)1707 285530
+44 (0)1707 285640
+44 (0)1707 285781
+44 (0)1707 285587
EWASS home page: http://www.jenam2009.eu (map of campus at http://www.star.herts.ac.uk/ewass)
EWASS press page: http://www.star.herts.ac.uk/ewass/press
RAS PN 09/20 (NAM 7, EMBARGOED): HARPS-NEF TO COMB KEPLER TARGETS FOR NEW EARTHS
Astronomers have announced plans to build an ultra-stable, high-precision spectrograph for the Science and Technology Facilities Council's 4.2-m William Herschel Telescope (WHT - part of the Isaac Newton Group or ING on La Palma) in an effort to discover habitable Earth-like planets around other stars. Dr Ian Skillen of the ING will present the new High Accuracy Radial-velocity Planet Search – New Earths Facility (HARPS-NEF) spectrograph in a poster on Monday 20th April at the European Week of Astronomy and Space Science conference at the University of Hertfordshire.
Spectrographs analyse the electromagnetic spectrum of light emitted from stars and other objects and allow astronomers to measure properties like velocity and temperature. The super sensitive HARPS-NEF spectrograph is currently under construction by a collaboration between Harvard University's Origins of Life Initiative, New Earths Facility, and the HARPS team of the University of Geneva and is expected to start operation soon after 2010.
A planet and its parent star orbit around a common centre of mass. As a (usually unseen) planet moves its gravitational pull exerts a small reflex motion on the star. The magnitude of this stellar 'wobble' is measured from the resulting Doppler shift imposed on its spectrum. A planet as small as the Earth causes a reflex motion of the Sun of just about 9 cm/sec, which is less than 1 km/hour, or equivalent to the speed of a rather gentle stroll! Other objects such as white dwarfs and stellar companions on the other hand cause a larger reflex motion in excess of 1 km/sec, and so are much easier to identify.By measuring the wobble of their parent stars, HARPS-NEF will use this technique to discover and characterise Earth-like planets from candidates identified by NASA's Kepler mission, launched on 6th March this year. It will incorporate several improvements on the original HARPS spectrograph at the European Southern Observatory in Chile, most notably the use of a laser frequency grid or 'astro comb', which will provide the ultra-stable wavelength reference against which tiny Doppler motions can be measured with an unparalleled precision of a few cm/s over a period of years.
Kepler will carry out a continuous 4-year survey of more than 100000 stars in the constellations of Cygnus and Lyra. It will search for the small, periodic dips in brightness that result from a planet passing directly in front of the star it orbits in a so-called transit. An Earth-like planet moving in front of its star causes a dip in brightness of about 1 part in 10000 and can last for several hours. However, other objects like the Earth-sized white dwarfs (compact objects that are the end state of stars like the Sun) can mimic this dip. So in conjunction with the Kepler observations, the HARPS-NEF measurements will allow astronomers to calculate both the mass and size of the orbiting objects and confirm them as planets. The mean density (from mass and size) will show if a planet is rocky and dry or rich in water.But determining the tiny changes in the motions of stars that result from orbiting Earth candidates is a huge challenge. It is the achievement of this precision and stability over many years that makes HARPS-NEF the most advanced facility of its kind in the world.
The scientists believe that the Kepler mission and HARPS-NEF on the WHT together have the
real prospect of discovering a number of Earth-like planets capable of supporting life.
Professor Dimitar Sasselov (Director, Harvard Origins of Life Initiative and HARPS-NEF project
leader) comments, “ A new age of exploration is about to begin, as HARPS-NEF will spy on
the new Earths identified by the Kepler mission to show us what they are made of and infer
their surface conditions.”
Dr Ian Skillen (ING project scientist for HARPS-NEF) adds, "The discovery of habitable, Earth-like planets orbiting other stars is now within our grasp. HARPS-NEF will play a fundamental role in this giant step forward in our quest for life elsewhere in the Universe.”
CONTACTS
Dr Ian SkillenING Astronomy Group
Apartado de Correos 321
38700 Santa Cruz de La Palma
Canary Islands
Spain
Tel: +34 922 425 439
Fax: +34 922 425 401
E-mail: wji@ing.iac.es
Professor Dimitar Sasselov
Department of Astronomy
Harvard University
60 Garden Street,
Cambridge, MA 02138
USA
Tel: +1 617 495 7451
E-mail: dsasselov@cfa.harvard.edu
Professor Stephane Udry
Geneva Observatory
Geneva University
51 ch des Mallettes
CH-1290 Versoix
Switzerland
E-mail: stephane.udry@obs.unige.ch
Dr Francesco Pepe
Geneva Observatory
Geneva University
51 ch des Mallettes
CH-1290 Versoix
Switzerland
E-mail: francesco.pepe@unige.ch
Helene Murphy
Media & PR Officer
University of Hertfordshire
Tel: +44 (0)1707 28 4095
E-mail: h.1.murphy@herts.ac.uk
IMAGE
An image of the original HARPS spectrograph is available from http://www.ing.iac.es/PR/press/HARPS2.jpg
Caption: The original HARPS spectrograph at the European Southern Observatory, during laboratory tests. The vacuum tank which isolates the spectrograph from the environment is open, allowing some of the high-precision optical components to be seen. The large optical grating, measuring 20 x 80 cm, is visible on top of the bench. It disperses the incoming stellar light into the spectrum from which the stellar Doppler 'wobble' is measured. Credit: ESO
NOTES FOR EDITORS
THE WILLIAM HERSCHEL TELESCOPE
The William Herschel Telescope is part of the Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes (ING). The ING is owned by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) of the United Kingdom, and it is operated jointly with the Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (NWO) of theNetherlands and the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) of Spain. The telescopes are located in the Spanish Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos on La Palma, Canary Islands, which is operated by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC).
THE EUROPEAN WEEK OF ASTRONOMY AND SPACE SCIENCE
More than 1000 astronomers and space scientists will gather at the University of Hertfordshire for the European Week of Astronomy and Space Science (EWASS), incorporating the 2009 Royal Astronomical Society National Astronomy Meeting (RAS NAM 2009) and the European Astronomical Society Joint Meeting (JENAM 2009). The meeting runs from 20th to 23rd April 2009.EWASS is held in conjunction with the UK Solar Physics (UKSP) and Magnetosphere Ionosphere and Solar-Terrestrial Physics (MIST) meetings. The conference includes scientific sessions organised by the European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere (ESO) and the European Space Agency (ESA).
EWASS is principally sponsored by the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS), the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) and the University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield.