Miniature Exoplanet Radial Velocity Array

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MINiature Exoplanet Radial Velocity Array
One of the individual telescopes of the Minerva project (left) and a diagram of one of the project's enclosures with two telescopes

The MINiature Exoplanet Radial Velocity Array (MINERVA) is a ground-based robotic dedicated exoplanet observatory. The facility is an array of small-aperture robotic telescopes outfitted for both photometry and high-resolution Doppler spectroscopy located at the U.S. Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory at Mt. Hopkins, Arizona.[1][2][3][4] The project's principal investigator is the American astronomer John Johnson.[1]

Science Objectives

The primary science goal of MINERVA is to discover Earth-like planets in close-in (less than 50-day) orbits around nearby stars, and super-Earths (3-15 times the mass of Earth) in the habitable zones of the closest Sun-like stars. The secondary goal is to look for transits (eclipses) of known and newly discovered extrasolar planets. The unique design of the MINERVA observatory allows the pursue of both goals simultaneously.

Specifications and Status

  • Telescopes: Four PlaneWave CDK700, 0.7m telescopes within 2 custom telescope enclosures designed by LCOGT engineers.
  • Cameras: 2k × 2k back illuminated CCD with 15 µm pixels offering > 20’ f.o.v.
  • Spectrograph: Stabilized, R = 75,000 echelle spectrograph with iodine cell for precise radial velocimetry designed by KiwiStar Optics (a business unit of Callaghan Innovation; a New Zealand government-owned Crown entity).
  • Status: Full photometric science operations began in May 2015 at FLWO. The spectrograph was installed Dec 2015.
  • Location: Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  • Website: www.cfa.harvard.edu/minerva/


See also

Other exoplanet search projects

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For a complete list see footer "Exoplanet search projects"

References

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External links


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