- High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher
The High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS) is a high-precision echelle
spectrograph installed in 2002 onESO 's 3.6mtelescope atLa Silla Observatory , withfirst light achievedFebruary 2003 . It is a second-generation radial-velocity spectrograph, based on experience with theELODIE andCORALIE instruments.It can attain a precision of 1 m/s, one of only two instruments worldwide with such accuracy, thanks to a design in which the target star and a reference spectrum from a
thorium lamp are observed simultaneously using two identicaloptic fibre feeds, and to very great attention to mechanical stability: the instrument sits in a vacuum vessel which is temperature-controlled to within 0.01C. The precision and sensitivity of the instrument is such that it incidentally produced the best-available measurement of the thorium spectrum. Planet-detection is in some cases limited by the pulsations of the star observed rather than by the instrument.The principal investigator on HARPS is
Michel Mayor , who works on it withDidier Queloz . The recent discovery of planetGliese 581 c , the most likely candidate forextraterrestrial life currently identified, was made byStéphane Udry of theGeneva Observatory .It was initially used for a survey of a thousand stars.
List of discoveries
*
HD 330075 b, on February 10, 2004.
*Mu Arae c , on August 25, 2004.
*Gliese 876 d , on June 13, 2005
*HD 93083 b , in 2005
*HD 101930 b , in 2005
*HD 102117 b , in 2005
*HD 4308 b , in 2005
*HD 69830 b , on May 18, 2006.
*HD 69830 c , on May 18, 2006.
*HD 69830 d , on May 18, 2006.
*Gliese 581 c , on April 23, 2007.
*Gliese 581 d , on April 23, 2007.
*HD 40307 b , in June 2008.
*HD 40307 c , in June 2008.
*HD 40307 d , in June 2008.External links
* [http://www.ls.eso.org/lasilla/sciops/3p6/harps/ HARPS Home Page]
* [http://www.ls.eso.org/lasilla/sciops/3p6/harps/Papers/6269-25.pdf The Exoplanet Hunter HARPS: unequalled accuracy and perspectives towards 1cm/s precision] - contains list of discoveries from 2005 survey.
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