HARPS-N: A New Tool for Characterizing Kepler Planets

The original HARPS spectrograph achieved first light on the ESO 3.6-m telescope almost ten years ago. Over the intervening decade HARPS has lived up to its name (High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher) and has had a major impact on our understanding of planets and planetary systems, by providing both orbital solutions for mass determinations and better parameters for host stars. But, HARPS does not have access to targets in the Kepler field of view in Cygnus and Lyra. This motivated the construction of HARPS-N, which saw first light on the Italian 3.6-m Telescopio Nazionale Galileo (TNG) in April 2012. The HARPS-N Collaboration is led by Francesco Pepe at the University of Geneva, with partners in the USA, UK, and Italy. The Collaboration has an agreement with the Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica that guarantees 80 nights per year on the TNG for five years, for two programs: follow-up observations to confirm and characterize Kepler planets and a Rocky Planet Search. Otherwise HARPS-N is available for observing proposals from the community. HARPS-N is performing well. The throughput is just as expected, and the radial-velocity precision is already approaching the 1 m/s level. Results for selected Kepler planets will be presented.