Survey of Close-in Super-Earths Using a New Generation Optical High Resolution Spectrograph
Abstract
A number of planets discovered using various ground-based and space-based surveys have allowed us to begin to study their statistical properties and find clues for their formation mechanisms. However, due to the traditionally adopted survey strategy, which is to observe stars with variable observational cadences (“run and gun” style), of high precision radial velocity (RV) surveys, the resulting survey completeness is usually low, especially at the low mass regime. This prevents us from obtaining critical data needed to investigate the statistical properties and formation mechanisms of low mass planet populations. We have designed a deep and homogeneous RV survey of ~500 nearby bright FGKM dwarfs for detecting low mass planets in 2014-2017 with a totally different survey strategy and cadence. This survey will observe every selected (bright, inactive, F5V to M4V) star ~100 times randomly spread over 300 days using our new generation extremely high Doppler precision optical spectrograph, called EXtremely high Precision ExtrasolaR planet Tracker III (EXPERT-III) 1 m/s precision), at the Automatic Spectroscopic Telescope (AST), a 2-m robotic telescope at Fairborn Observatory in Arizona. The flexible queue schedule offered by this robotic telescope greatly facilitates this high precision and high cadence survey. We have demonstrated the survey performance and predicted results through simulations. They show that an unprecedented high completeness sample of close-in super-Earths can be achieved. Therefore, this survey will not only precisely measure statistical properties of the close-in super Earth population largely uncovered by the Kepler mission, but also offer a uniquely homogeneous sample to constrain various planet formation models. Furthermore, this survey has a great sensitivity to probe super-Earth planets in habitable zones around K and M dwarfs.
- Publication:
-
American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts #223
- Pub Date:
- January 2014
- Bibcode:
- 2014AAS...22332604S