Automated Planet Finder Rus. The Automatic Planet Finder (aka Rocky Planet Finder) is a fully robotic 2.4-meter optical telescope at the Lick Observatory , located on top of Mount Hamilton east of San Jose, California (USA) ) [2] . It is designed to search for exoplanets with a mass in the range of five to twenty times the Earth . The device considers about 10 stars per night. Over a decade, the telescope is expected to study 1,000 nearby stars for the planets. Initially, its estimated cost was 10 million US dollars. The total final cost by the end of the project amounted to $ 12.37 million. The first launch was originally planned for 2006, but there were delays in the construction of the main components of the telescope, which shifted the launch to August 2013. [1] In August 2013, a launch was made.
| Automatic planet search | |
|---|---|
| Automated Planet Finder | |
 | |
| Type of | reflector telescope |
| Location | Lick Observatory |
| Coordinates | |
| Height | |
| opening date | 2013 |
| Diameter | |
| Dome | Spherical |
The telescope uses high-precision radial velocity measurements to recognize the reflex motion of nearby stars caused by the gravity of planets moving in orbits around the observed star. Design accuracy should provide for the detection of star motion at a speed of up to one meter per second, which is comparable to the speed of slow walking. The main targets will be stars within about 100 light-years from Earth.
The first tests showed that Ken and Gloria Levy's Doppler spectrometer performance achieved design accuracy. The spectrometer has a high throughput and demonstrates the calculated sensitivity (1.0 m / s), at the level of accuracy of radial velocity measurement with HARPS and HIRES instruments [1] .
Assembly
The design of the telescope was created in the course of international cooperation [1] :
- The mirror blank was cast in Russia.
- Optical mirror refinement was carried out in Maryland, USA.
- The assembly was carried out in Arizona, USA.
- The dome of the telescope was built in Australia.
- The spectrograph was designed and built in California .
- The observatory itself is located on Mount Hamilton in California.
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 Telescopes of the Lick Observatory . University of California Observatories (2015). Date accessed August 23, 2016. (English)
- ↑ Steven S. Vogt et al., APF - The Lick Observatory Automated Planet Finder , February 26, 2014 .