Towards the detection of exoearths
CARMENES, ['kαr-men-es] (Calar Alto high-Resolution search for M dwarfs with Exoearths with Near-infrared and optical Échelle Spectrographs), is a next-generation instrument to be built for the 3.5m telescope at the Calar Alto Observatory by a consortium of German and Spanish institutions. It consists of two separated spectrographs covering the wavelength ranges from 0.5 to 1.0 µm and from 1.0 to 1.7 µm with spectral resolutions R = 82,000. The spectrographs will be fed by fibres from the Cassegrain focus of the telescope, housed in a temperature-stabilised environment in vacuum tanks, calibrated using simultaneous emission lamps, and optimised for exoearth searches around M dwarfs. Conducting a five-year exoplanet survey targeting ~300 M stars with the completed instrument is an integral part of the project.
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"CARMENES: the new exoplanet hunter at Calar Alto". Poster presented by J. A. Caballero et al. at the 'Science with the optical-infrared telescopes at CAHA and ORM in the coming decade' workshop (Madrid, 22-23 Mar 2012). Click on it to enlarge