GPI

Local Member: James Graham (Project Scientist), Quinn Konopacky, Jerome Maire.

The Gemini Planet Imager is the next generation adaptive optics instrument being built for the Gemini Telescope. The goal is to image extrasolar planets orbiting nearby stars.

GPI will produce the first comprehensive survey of giant planets in the region where giant planets exist in our solar system — from 5 to 40 astronomical units radius. Dozens of these planets will be bright enough for high signal-to-noise ratio spectroscopy, moving our studies of extrasolar planets into the realm of detailed astrophysics.

We want to directly detect the light from an extrasolar planet to determine its mass and composition, with an ultimate goal of determining the nature of our own planetary system. More than 200 extrasolar planets are now known, but mostly through indirect Doppler techniques that indicate the planet's mass and orbit. If we can directly pick out a planet from the star's glare, we can use spectroscopy to measure the planet's size, temperature, gravity, and even the composition of its atmosphere. By targeting many stars we will understand how common or unusual our own planetary system may be.

Initially, GPI will be deployed at Gemini South, a telescope with an 8-meter diameter mirror located on Cerro Pachon (Chilean Andes) at an altitude of 2715 meters (9000 feet). Later, GPI may also be used at the twin facility Gemini North, which is located on Mauna Kea, Hawaii.

First light and science operations are planned for mid-2012.

IRIS

IRIS is a first generation near-infrared (0.85-2.5 μm) instrument being designed to sample the diffraction limit of the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT). IRIS will include an integral field spectrograph (R~4000) and imaging camera (17"x17"). Both the spectrograph and imager will take advantage of the high spatial resolution achieved with the Narrow-Field Infrared Adaptive Optics System (NFIRAOS) at four spatial scales (0.004", 0.009", 0.025", 0.05"). IRIS will achieve an angular resolution ten times better than images from the Hubble Space Telescope, and will be the highest angular resolution near-infrared instrument in the world.

Arctic Telescope

The Dunlap Institute Arctic Telescope is a wide-field half-metre telescope designed to search for habitable transiting planets around cool stars. The system will operate in the high Canadian arctic, where 24-hour darkness will improve the survey's detection efficiency by a large factor compared to mid-latitude sites.

Robo-AO

Robo-AO (formerly CAMERA) is a robotic laser guide star adaptive optics system designed for the Palomar 60-inch telescope.

The system is planned to achieve first light in mid-2011.

Our SPIE paper has more details.

TMT NSCU

TMT NSCU is science calibration system for the adaptive optics and infrared instruments of the future Thirty Meter Telescope.

Our SPIE paper has more details.

WIFIS

WIFIS (Wide Integral-Field Infrared Spectrograph) is a near-infared integral-field spectrograph with 6" x 12" field on a 10-m telescope (or 15" x 30" on a 4-m telescope) and R = 5000 spectral resolving power.

Potential host telescopes include Palomar 5-m, IRTF 3-m and 10.4-m Gran Telescopio Canarias (in collaboration with the University of Florida).

First light expected for 2012.

Our SPIE paper has more details.

NIRES

NIRES (Near-Infrared Echelle Spectrograph) is the facility near-infrared spectrograph of the 10-m Keck II telescope.

Status: Almost ready, first light expected for 2011.

ATLAS^3D

The ATLAS^3D project (Cappellari et al. 2011) combines a multi-wavelength survey of a complete sample of 260 early-type galaxies within the local (42Mpc) volume (1.16×105 Mpc3) with numerical simulations and semi-analytic modeling of galaxy formation. This project aims to quantify the global stellar kinematics and dynamics of a statistically significant sample of objects to characterize the class of early-type galaxies, and relate this to their formation and evolution.

The observational part of the project consists of optical integral-field spectroscopy using the SAURON integral-field unit on the William Herschel Telescope (WHT), radio and millimeter observation with the Westerbork Radio Synthesis Telescope (WRST), the IRAM 30m telescope and the Combined Array for Research in Millimeter-wave Astronomy (CARMA). The data will be released at the completion of the project, providing a unique Legacy Survey.

State-of-the-art numerical simulations will help and support the interpretation of this unique set of data, assessing signatures in the dynamics and stellar populations of the formation and evolution processes of early-type galaxies. An extensive series of high resolution N-body + gas (SPH and/or sticky particles) simulations are being performed, including e.g., star formation and feedback, both for isolated or interacting galaxies, binary and multiple mergers, as well as cosmologically motivated simulations.

Palomar Transient Factory

Palomar Transient Factory is a transient search using an 8-square-degree imager on the Palomar 48-inch telescope.

The system has been running reliably since January 2009. PTF (PI: Shri Kulkarni) is a collaboration of over 70 people in many institutions. The system completed commissioning in summer 2009; a full description of the system is published in Law et al. 2009 (PASP 121.1395L).

PTF has already found over a thousand extragalactic transients and discovered a whole new class of supernova!

PTF/M-dwarfs

PTF/M-dwarfs is a new search for giant planets around M-dwarfs using data from the Palomar Transient Factory, as well as follow-up by other telescopes.

The project took its first observations at the end of 2009 and involves teams from Caltech, LCOGT and Hawaii.

So far we have observed over 100,000 M-dwarfs, with sensitivity to planetary transits around each one.

A brief description of the project can be found in the PTF science cases paper, a recent poster from the Cool Stars conference is here, and the Cool Stars conference proceedings are here and here.

MAAPS

MAAPS, the M-dwarf Astrometric AO Planet Search, is a Palomar adaptive-optics astrometry program. The search achieves 100-200 microarcsecond astrometric precision, sufficient to detect Jupiter-mass planets around mid-M-dwarfs.

MaNGA