The Habitable Zone Planet Finder Project: A Proposed High Resolution NIR Spectrograph for the Hobby Eberly Telescope (HET) to Discover Low Mass Exoplanets around M Stars

摘要

Radial velocity precision in the NIR is now approaching the level necessary to detect exoplanets around mid-late M stars that are very faint in the optical and emit most of their flux in the NIR. The Penn State Pathfinder prototype instrument has already demonstrated 7-10 ryas~(-1) precision on sunlight, and similar precision has been reported at the Pathways conference using CRIRES and an ammonia gas-cell. We discuss the science goals that motivate a stable cross-dispersed, high-resolution NIR spectrograph on a large telescope, as well as the path leading from the Pathfinder prototype to one such possible instrument - the fiber-fed Habitable Zone Planet Finder (HZPF) on the Hobby Eberly Telescope (HET). We also discuss wavelength calibration issues specific to the NIR, and our ongoing exploration with Pathfinder to mitigate these issues.