Projets - Exoplanets

CHEOPS

The CHaracterizing ExOPlanet Satellite (CHEOPS) will be the first mission dedicated to search for transits by means of ultrahigh precision photometry on bright stars already known to host planets. By being able to point at nearly any location on the sky, it will provide the unique capability of determining accurate radii for a subset of those planets for which the mass has already been estimated from ground-based spectroscopic surveys. It will also provide precision radii for new planets discovered by the next generation ground-based transits surveys (Neptune-size and smaller). CHEOPS has been selected as the European Space Agency’s first “small-class” mission on 19 October 2012. The observatory of the University of Geneva will host the Science Operations Centre of the mission. The CHEOPS team at the University of Geneva (scientific, technical, and administrative staff) is working in close collaboration with the team responsible for the instrument design at the University of Bern, towards the formal adoption of the mission by ESA in early 2014.

DACE

The Data Analysis Center for Exoplanets (DACE) is a facility based at the University of Geneva dedicated to extrasolar planets data visualisation, exchange and analysis. DACE is a new project, with more tools and data being implemented regularly. At the moment, DACE provides access to CORALIE, HARPS-S and HARPS-N data to registered users (Geneva planet search group collaborators). Kepler data are available to any visitor of DACE through sophisticated visualising tools as well as a few basic data data analysis tools. In the near future, all published radial velocity data will be made available to the public with dedicated data visualisation and analysis tools. DACE will be further developed, including a wide range of observational and theoretical data with the tools to analyse and compare them.

ESPRESSO

ESPRESSO is a new-generation spectrograph for ESO’s Very Large Telescope. The amazing ‘spectroscopic’ precision of this instrument will provide the community with new scientific capabilities which are unique world-wide. The instrument is built and delivered to ESO by the ESPRESSO Consortium in exchange of Guaranteed-Time Observations (GTO). This collaboration will focus and dedicate the GTO to two major scientific programmes: the search for rocky extra-solar planets in the habitable zone of their host stars and the determination of the possible variability of physical constants. In the latter case, the observations will make use of the capability of ESPRESSO to combine incoherently the light of up to four 8-m Unit Telescopes (UTs) of the VLT. This make ESPRESSO to the first optical instrument using a 16-m equivalent telescope. The ESPRESSO Consortium is composed of Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and Swiss institutes. ESO contributes to the project as Associated Partner. The instrument is currently in the procurement phase. Assembly and integration will take place in 2015, and on-site installation and commissioning is planned for the second part of 2016. ESPRESSO will be opened to the scientific community by 2017.

EULER

The Swiss 1.2-metre Leonhard Euler Telescope at La Silla was built and is operated by the Geneva Observatory of the Université de Genève (Switzerland). It is named in honour of the famous Swiss mathematician Leonhard Euler (1707–1783). The fully automatic telescope is equipped with three instruments. The CORALIE spectrograph is a high-precision radial-velocity spectrograph mainly dedicated to search for large exoplanets in the southern celestial hemisphere. ECAM (or EulerCam) is an astronomical camera of sub-millimag precision installed at the Cassegrain focus. Several scientific programs are carried out with this camera including a survey of gravitational lenses to map the distribution of visible and dark matter, the observation of planetary transits, etc. Finally, a small telescope called Pisco is mounted in piggy-bag on the Euler Telescope for the simultaneous photometric observation of the stars observed in spectroscopy with Coralie.

HARPS

HARPS is a spectrometer dedicated to the search for extrasolar planets by means of the technique of precise radial velocity measurement. The instrument is built to obtain very high long term radial velocity accuracy (on the order of 1 m/s). As the amplitude of the radial-velocity variations scales with the mass of the planetary companion, a 1m/s precision allows the detection of very light “giant” planets (a few tenths of Saturn, although terrestrial planets will stay beyond reach). This is especially important in the case of planetary systems for which the influences of several companions add up blurring the observed signal for instruments with inadequate resolution.

HARPS-N

HARPS is a spectrometer dedicated to the search for extrasolar planets by means of the technique of precise radial velocity measurement. The instrument is built to obtain very high long term radial velocity accuracy (on the order of 1 m/s). As the amplitude of the radial-velocity variations scales with the mass of the planetary companion, a 1m/s precision allows the detection of very light “giant” planets (a few tenths of Saturn, although terrestrial planets will stay beyond reach). This is especially important in the case of planetary systems for which the influences of several companions add up blurring the observed signal for instruments with inadequate resolution.

NGTS

NGTS is a wide-field photometric survey designed to discover transiting exoplanets of Neptune-size and smaller around bright stars, providing the prime targets for characterization by VLT, ELT and JWST. These bright targets provide the key to understanding planetary structure and evolution, as well as atmospheric composition. To do so, NGTS will employ an array of fully-robotic 20-cm telescopes operating in the 600-900nm band, thereby maximizing sensitivity to bright (magnitude V<13) but relatively small host stars. NGTS will be sited at ESO-Paranal, which meets strict requirements for low water vapor and excellent photometric conditions. The NGTS project is a partnership between the University of Cambridge, Queen’s University Belfast, University of Warwick, University of Leicester, Observatoire de Genève, DLR (Berlin) and Universidad Catolica de Chile. The first data are expected during summer 2014.

PRIMA

PRIMA is a facility that will enable astrometric observations with the Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI). It aims at observing and characterising extra-solar planets through precise astrometry, which is a technique very complementary to the radial-velocity method. It has a different detection bias, favoring planets on wide orbits versus the short-period orbits preferentially detected by the radial-velocity technique. Moreover, astrometry measures two components (right ascension and declination) of the stellar reflex motion versus the single radial component that is observable spectroscopically.

SOPHIE

SOPHIE is a cross-dispersed, environmentally stabilized échelle spectrograph dedicated to high precision radial velocity measurements. It is in operation since end 2006 at the 1.93-m telescope of Haute Provence Observatory and it replaced the ELODIE spectrograph well known for the discovery of 51 Pegb.

SPHERE

The prime objective of the Spectro-Polarimetric High-contrast Exoplanet Research (SPHERE) instrument for the VLT is the discovery and study of new extra-solar giant planets orbiting nearby stars by direct imaging of their circumstellar environment. SPHERE will greatly contribute to the field of extra-solar planets studies, already very active, particularly by offering direct detections of planets more massive than Jupiter at various stages of their evolution, in the key separation regime between 1 and 100 AUs. Migration mechanisms will then be better understood. SPHERE is currently in its final acceptance phase in Europe and will be shipped to Paranal in February 2014. First light on sky is planned for mid-April 2014.

SPIROU

SPIRou is a near-infrared spectropolarimeter / high-precision velocimeter being designed as a new instrument for Canada France Hawaii Telescope (CFHT). Technically speaking, SPIRou is essentially a near-IR version of ESPaDOnS/ NARVAL with greatly improved RV stability (1m/s level), or a near-IR version of HARPS with spectropolarimetric capabilities. It consists of a high-resolution cryogenic échelle spectrograph fiber-fed from a Cassegrain achromatic polarimeter. It yields nearly complete spectral coverage in the YJHK bands (ie from 0.98 to 2.35 µm) at a spectral resolution of ~75,000.

NIRPS

A powerful new instrument called NIRPS (Near Infra Red Planet Searcher) is to be installed on the ESO 3.6-metre telescope at the La Silla Observatory in Chile. Built by an international collaboration [1] co-led by the Observatoire du Mont-Mégantic (OMM) team at the Université de Montréal and the Astronomy Department team at the Université de Genève, NIRPS is a high accuracy radial velocity infrared spectrograph designed to detect Earth-like rocky planets around the coolest stars.