skip to main content
US FlagAn official website of the United States government
dot gov icon
Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
https lock icon
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( lock ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.


Title: The Extreme Stellar-signals Project. III. Combining Solar Data from HARPS, HARPS-N, EXPRES, and NEID
Abstract We present an analysis of Sun-as-a-star observations from four different high-resolution, stabilized spectrographs—HARPS, HARPS-N, EXPRES, and NEID. With simultaneous observations of the Sun from four different instruments, we are able to gain insight into the radial velocity precision and accuracy delivered by each of these instruments and isolate instrumental systematics that differ from true astrophysical signals. With solar observations, we can completely characterize the expected Doppler shift contributed by orbiting Solar System bodies and remove them. This results in a data set with measured velocity variations that purely trace flows on the solar surface. Direct comparisons of the radial velocities measured by each instrument show remarkable agreement with residual intraday scatter of only 15–30 cm s−1. This shows that current ultra-stabilized instruments have broken through to a new level of measurement precision that reveals stellar variability with high fidelity and detail. We end by discussing how radial velocities from different instruments can be combined to provide powerful leverage for testing techniques to mitigate stellar signals.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
2009528
PAR ID:
10465653
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; more » ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; « less
Publisher / Repository:
DOI PREFIX: 10.3847
Date Published:
Journal Name:
The Astronomical Journal
Volume:
166
Issue:
4
ISSN:
0004-6256
Format(s):
Medium: X Size: Article No. 173
Size(s):
Article No. 173
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
More Like this
  1. null (Ed.)
    ABSTRACT We report the discovery of a warm sub-Saturn, TOI-257b (HD 19916b), based on data from NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). The transit signal was detected by TESS and confirmed to be of planetary origin based on radial velocity observations. An analysis of the TESS photometry, the Minerva-Australis, FEROS, and HARPS radial velocities, and the asteroseismic data of the stellar oscillations reveals that TOI-257b has a mass of MP = 0.138 ± 0.023 $$\rm {M_J}$$ (43.9 ± 7.3 $$\, M_{\rm \oplus}$$), a radius of RP = 0.639 ± 0.013 $$\rm {R_J}$$ (7.16 ± 0.15 $$\, \mathrm{ R}_{\rm \oplus}$$), bulk density of $$0.65^{+0.12}_{-0.11}$$ (cgs), and period $$18.38818^{+0.00085}_{-0.00084}$$ $$\rm {days}$$. TOI-257b orbits a bright (V = 7.612 mag) somewhat evolved late F-type star with M* = 1.390 ± 0.046 $$\rm {M_{sun}}$$, R* = 1.888 ± 0.033 $$\rm {R_{sun}}$$, Teff = 6075 ± 90 $$\rm {K}$$, and vsin i = 11.3 ± 0.5 km s−1. Additionally, we find hints for a second non-transiting sub-Saturn mass planet on a ∼71 day orbit using the radial velocity data. This system joins the ranks of a small number of exoplanet host stars (∼100) that have been characterized with asteroseismology. Warm sub-Saturns are rare in the known sample of exoplanets, and thus the discovery of TOI-257b is important in the context of future work studying the formation and migration history of similar planetary systems. 
    more » « less
  2. Abstract We present 3D velocity measurements and acceleration limits for stars within a few parsec of the Galactic Center (GC) black hole, Sgr A*, based on observations of 43 and 86 GHz circumstellar maser emission. Observations were taken with the Very Large Array in 2013, 2014, and 2020 and with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array in 2015 and 2017. We detect 28 masers in total, of which four are new detections. Combining these data with extant maser astrometry, we calculate stellar proper motions and accelerations with uncertainties as low as ∼10μas yr−1and 0.5μas yr−2, respectively, corresponding to approximately 0.5 km s−1and 0.04 km s−1yr−1at a distance of 8 kpc. We measure radial velocities from maser spectra with ∼0.5 km s−1uncertainties, though the precision and accuracy of such measurements for deducing the underlying stellar velocities are limited by the complex spectral profiles of some masers. We therefore measure radial acceleration limits with typical uncertainties of ∼0.1 km s−1yr−1. We analyze the resulting 3D velocities and accelerations with respect to expected motions resulting from models of the mass distribution in the GC. 
    more » « less
  3. Abstract Measured spectral shifts due to intrinsic stellar variability (e.g., pulsations, granulation) and activity (e.g., spots, plages) are the largest source of error for extreme-precision radial-velocity (EPRV) exoplanet detection. Several methods are designed to disentangle stellar signals from true center-of-mass shifts due to planets. The Extreme-precision Spectrograph (EXPRES) Stellar Signals Project (ESSP) presents a self-consistent comparison of 22 different methods tested on the same extreme-precision spectroscopic data from EXPRES. Methods derived new activity indicators, constructed models for mapping an indicator to the needed radial-velocity (RV) correction, or separated out shape- and shift-driven RV components. Since no ground truth is known when using real data, relative method performance is assessed using the total and nightly scatter of returned RVs and agreement between the results of different methods. Nearly all submitted methods return a lower RV rms than classic linear decorrelation, but no method is yet consistently reducing the RV rms to sub-meter-per-second levels. There is a concerning lack of agreement between the RVs returned by different methods. These results suggest that continued progress in this field necessitates increased interpretability of methods, high-cadence data to capture stellar signals at all timescales, and continued tests like the ESSP using consistent data sets with more advanced metrics for method performance. Future comparisons should make use of various well-characterized data sets—such as solar data or data with known injected planetary and/or stellar signals—to better understand method performance and whether planetary signals are preserved. 
    more » « less
  4. Abstract We report the detection of transverse magnetohydrodynamic waves, also known as Alfvénic waves, in the chromospheric fibrils of a solar-quiet region. Unlike previous studies that measured transversal displacements of fibrils in imaging data, we investigate the line-of-sight (LOS) velocity oscillations of the fibrils in spectral data. The observations were carried out with the Fast Imaging Solar Spectrograph of the 1.6 m Goode Solar Telescope at the Big Bear Solar Observatory. By applying spectral inversion to the Hαand Caii8542 Å line profiles, we determine various physical parameters, including the LOS velocity in the chromosphere of the quiet Sun. In the Hαdata, we select two adjacent points along the fibrils and analyze the LOS velocities at those points. For the time series of the velocities that show high cross-correlation between the two points and do not exhibit any correlation with intensity, we interpret them as propagating Alfvénic wave packets. We identify a total of 385 Alfvénic wave packets in the quiet-Sun fibrils. The mean values of the period, velocity amplitude, and propagation speed are 7.5 minutes, 1.33 km s−1, and 123 km s−1, respectively. We find that the detected waves are classified into three groups based on their periods, namely, 3, 5, and 10 minute bands. Each group of waves exhibits distinct wave properties, indicating a possible connection to their generation mechanism. Based on our results, we expect that the identification of Alfvénic waves in various regions will provide clues to their origin and the underlying physical processes in the solar atmosphere. 
    more » « less
  5. Abstract Extreme precision radial velocity (EPRV) measurements contend with internal noise (instrumental systematics) and external noise (intrinsic stellar variability) on the road to 10 cm s−1“exo-Earth” sensitivity. Both of these noise sources are well-probed using “Sun-as-a-star” RVs and cross-instrument comparisons. We built the Solar Calibrator (SoCal), an autonomous system that feeds stable, disk-integrated sunlight to the recently commissioned Keck Planet Finder (KPF) at the W. M. Keck Observatory. With SoCal, KPF acquires signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) ∼ 1200,R= 98,000 optical (445–870 nm) spectra of the Sun in 5 s exposures at unprecedented cadence for an EPRV facility using KPF’s fast readout mode (<16 s between exposures). Daily autonomous operation is achieved by defining an operations loop using state machine logic. Data affected by clouds are automatically flagged using a reliable quality control metric derived from simultaneous irradiance measurements. Comparing solar data across the growing global network of EPRV spectrographs with solar feeds will allow EPRV teams to disentangle internal and external noise sources and benchmark spectrograph performance. To facilitate this, all SoCal data products are immediately available to the public on the Keck Observatory Archive. We compared SoCal RVs to contemporaneous RVs from NEID, the only other immediately public EPRV solar data set. We find agreement at the 30–40 cm s−1level on timescales of several hours, which is comparable to the combined photon-limited precision. Data from SoCal were also used to assess a detector problem and wavelength calibration inaccuracies associated with KPF during early operations. Long-term SoCal operations will collect upwards of 1000 solar spectra per six-hour day using KPF’s fast readout mode, enabling stellar activity studies at high S/N on our nearest solar-type star. 
    more » « less