Abstract
The CARMENES (Calar Alto high-Resolution search for M dwarfs with Exo-earths with Near-infrared and optical Echelle Spectrographs) consortium, consisting of eleven Spanish and German institutions, has been established to conduct a radial-velocity survey of M dwarfs with the 3.5 m telescope at the Calar Alto Observatory. This survey will target ∼300 M stars, with emphasis on spectral types M4V and later. The CARMENES instrument is currently under construction; it consists of two independent échelle spectrographs covering the wavelength ranges 0.55 …1.05 μm and 0.95 …1.7 μm, respectively, at a spectral resolution of R = 82,000. The spectrographs are fed by fibers from the Cassegrain focus of the telescope; calibration is performed simultaneously with emission-line lamps. The optical benches of the spectrographs are housed in vacuum tanks and climatic chambers, which provide the temperature-stabilized environments necessary to enable a 1 m/s radial velocity precision.
Highlights
Radial-velocity (RV) surveys of M dwarfs are gaining momentum as an important complement to surveys of more massive stars, and as a method to discover and possibly characterize hot and temperate rocky exoplanets
The CARMENES (Calar Alto high-Resolution search for M dwarfs with Exo-earths with Near-infrared and optical Echelle Spectrographs) consortium, consisting of eleven Spanish and German institutions, has been established to conduct a radial-velocity survey of M dwarfs with the 3.5 m telescope at the Calar Alto Observatory
Radial-velocity searches for planets around M dwarfs benefit from a larger signal, and a shorter orbital period of planets in the habitable zone (HZ)
Summary
Radial-velocity (RV) surveys of M dwarfs are gaining momentum as an important complement to surveys of more massive stars, and as a method to discover and possibly characterize hot and temperate rocky exoplanets. 0.6 M , are the most abundant type of stars in our Galaxy (frequency ∼80 %), and obtaining statistics of planetary system. Radial-velocity searches for planets around M dwarfs benefit from a larger signal, and a shorter orbital period of planets in the habitable zone (HZ). These advantages, along with the larger transit depths, have been exploited to find some of the low-mass exoplanets known so far, both with the radial-velocity method (e.g., Mayor et al 2009, Anglada-Escudé et al 2012), and with transits (Charbonneau et al 2009). The CARMENES (Calar Alto high-Resolution search for M dwarfs with Exo-earths with Nearinfrared and optical Echelle Spectrographs; see Quirrenbach et al 2010, 2012) project is aimed at filling this gap, by constructing a radial-velocity instrument optimized for planet searches of mid- to late-type M dwarfs
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