Miniature Exoplanet Radial Velocity Array

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 projects principal investigator is the American astronomer John Johnson.^[1]

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.

Status: Full photometric science operations began in May 2015 at FLWO. The spectrograph was installed Dec 2015.
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).
Location: Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory 31°41′18.2″N 110°53′07.4″W / 31.688389°N 110.885389°W / 31.688389; -110.885389
Website: www.cfa.harvard.edu/minerva/

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References

^ ^a ^b "A dedicated Exoplanet Oservatory". Harvard. 3 February 2016. Retrieved 3 February 2016.
^ Gudmundur Stefansson (26 December 2014). "MINERVA: MINiature Exoplanet Radial Velocity Array". astrobites. Retrieved April 2016. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |access-date= (help)
^ Kristina Hogstrom. "MINERVA: Using Small, Fully Robotic Telescopes to Search for Habitable-Zone Exoplanets". NASA. Retrieved April 2016. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |access-date= (help)
^ "Earth-hunting, guerilla style". Planetquest JPL/NASA. 6 September 2012. Retrieved April 2016. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |access-date= (help)