Keck's new Planet Hunter Instrument Comes Online, Searching for Smaller, More Earth-Sized Exoplanets - by ScottyJ_PhD
KPF hopes to find new planets too, especially smaller, rocky worlds orbiting close to their stars. It is more sensitive than the Keck Observatory’s previous planter finder , aided in part by the use of a ceramic-glass hybrid material called Zerodur for its base and optical components. The material doesn’t expand or contract with temperature changes, meaning there are fewer false signals picked up by KPF.
Spectrum of the star HD 164922 taken with the Keck Planet Finder during its first night of operation. Credit: Guðmundur Stefánsson and the KPF team. There are limitations, of course. KPF will be best suited for observing planets around dim stars like red dwarfs, rather than Sun-like stars. These stars have habitable zones much closer in than that of our Sun, but are often considered less suitable for life due to the higher solar flare activity usually found in that type of star.
Nonetheless, the team is excited to study extremely small rocky worlds close to their stars, as well as planets with odd orbits and high inclinations that travel over the poles of their stars. One of the first undertakings will be to aim KPF at the 50 nearest stars to Earth, searching for planets in our own local neighborhood.
After observing Jupiter on Wednesday night, KPF turned its gaze to other star systems for the first time. It will continue its commissioning phase for the next several months, and go into primary operations in the spring. When it does, it is sure to reveal details of intriguing new planets, some of which may even be candidates for direct observation by the James Webb Space Telescope or next-generation ground-based telescopes.
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