EXPRES. I. HD 3651 as an Ideal RV Benchmark

Journal Article · Sat Aug 01 00:00:00 EDT 2020 · Astronomical Journal (New York, N.Y. Online)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-3881/AB99C9· OSTI ID:23013299

Brewer, John M. ^[1]; Fischer, Debra A.; Blackman, Ryan T.; Cabot, Samuel H. C.; Davis, Allen B.; Laughlin, Gregory; Leet, Christopher; Ong, J.M. Joel; Petersburg, Ryan R.; Szymkowiak, Andrew E.; Zhao, Lily L. ^[2]; Henry, Gregory W. ^[3]; Llama, Joe ^[4]

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1. Department of Physics and Astronomy, San Francisco State University, 1600 Holloway Ave., San Francisco, CA 94132 (United States)
2. Department of Astronomy, Yale University, 52 Hillhouse Ave., New Haven, CT 06511 (United States)
3. Center of Excellence in Information Systems, Tennessee State University, Nashville, TN 37209 (United States)
4. Lowell Observatory, 1400 Mars Hill Rd., Flagstaff, AZ 86001 (United States)

The next generation of exoplanet-hunting spectrographs should deliver up to an order of magnitude improvement in radial velocity (RV) precision over the standard 1 m s{sup −1} state-of-the-art spectrographs. This advance is critical for enabling the detection of Earth-mass planets around Sun-like stars. New calibration techniques such as laser frequency combs and stabilized etalons ensure that the instrumental stability is well characterized. However, additional sources of error include stellar noise, undetected short-period planets, and telluric contamination. To understand and ultimately mitigate error sources, the contributing terms in the error budget must be isolated to the greatest extent possible. Here, we introduce a new high-cadence RV program, the Extreme Precision Spectrograph (EXPRES) 100 Earths Survey, which aims to identify rocky planets around bright, nearby G and K dwarfs. We also present a benchmark case: the 62 day orbit of a Saturn-mass planet orbiting the chromospherically quiet star, HD 3651. The combination of high eccentricity (0.6) and a moderately long orbital period ensures significant dynamical clearing of any inner planets. Our Keplerian model for this planetary orbit has a residual rms of 58 cm s{sup −1} over a ∼6 month time baseline. By eliminating significant contributors to the RV error budget, HD 3651 serves as a standard for evaluating the long-term precision of extreme precision RV programs.

• OSTI ID: 23013299
• Journal Information: Astronomical Journal (New York, N.Y. Online), Vol. 160, Issue 2; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1538-3881
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTROPHYSICS
COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
BENCHMARKS
BINARY STARS
DETECTION
DWARF STARS
MASS
ORBITS
PLANETS
RADIAL VELOCITY
SPECTROSCOPY