Spectroscopy enables key physical insight in the study of exoplanets, stars, galaxies, and the interstellar and intergalactic media. Detailed spectroscopic studies of both bright and faint objects call for high dispersion at large telescopes to increase the photon-collecting area. High-resolution, high-stability spectroscopy is key for the precise determination of radial velocities and detailed chemical analyses of stars across the Galaxy. In addition, several science cases, such as detection of exoplanets or stellar binarity require repeated observations over a long time baseline.
Our team has extensive experience in the design and development of high-resolution spectrographs such as ESPRESSO, HORuS andNIRPS, already in operation, and HARPS3 (currently under development) and ANDES (in design phase). NIRPS started regular operations at ESO on April 2023.
We have privileged access to NIRPS data through Guaranteed time observations (GTO) as members of the NIRPS core science team and to the DESI stellar spectral database as members of the DESI collaboration. The main goals of the current project are:
(i) To use the NIRPS GTO data (together with HARPS and other available instruments such as ESPRESSO, HARPS-N and CARMENES) to search and characterize low-mass planets with the goal of finding potentially habitable rocky planets. Some of these new discoveries will be suitable targets for future observations with ANDES @ 39m-ELT to search for biomarkers in their atmospheres.
(ii) To use the DESI spectral database to discover new extremely iron-poor stars, that will prompt high resolution spectroscopy (includingHORuS, ESPRESSO and other available instruments such as UVES@VLT and HIRES@Keck), allowing us a deeper understanding of the early phases of formation and evolution of the Galaxy, in particular, the properties of the first supernovae and early chemical evolution of the Universe.
(iii) To contribute to the final design phase (FDR phase) of the ANDES spectrograph for the ELT with the design of the optomechanics of the UBV and RIZ arms of this challenging instrument.
