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Award ID contains: 1801978

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  1. Abstract Using the Keck Planet Imager and Characterizer, we obtained high-resolution (R∼ 35,000)K-band spectra of the four planets orbiting HR 8799. We clearly detected H2O and CO in the atmospheres of HR 8799 c, d, and e, and tentatively detected a combination of CO and H2O in b. These are the most challenging directly imaged exoplanets that have been observed at high spectral resolution to date when considering both their angular separations and flux ratios. We developed a forward-modeling framework that allows us to jointly fit the spectra of the planets and the diffracted starlight simultaneously in a likelihood-based approach and obtained posterior probabilities on their effective temperatures, surface gravities, radial velocities, and spins. We measured v sin ( i ) values of 10.1 2.7 + 2.8 km s 1 for HR 8799 d and 15.0 2.6 + 2.3 km s 1 for HR 8799 e, and placed an upper limit of <14 km s−1of HR 8799 c. Under two different assumptions of their obliquities, we found tentative evidence that rotation velocity is anticorrelated with companion mass, which could indicate that magnetic braking with a circumplanetary disk at early times is less efficient at spinning down lower-mass planets. 
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  5. Evans, Christopher J.; Bryant, Julia J.; Motohara, Kentaro (Ed.)
    NIRSPEC is a high-resolution near-infrared echelle spectrograph on the Keck II telescope that was commissioned in 1999 and upgraded in 2018. This recent upgrade was aimed at improving the sensitivity and longevity of the instrument through the replacement of the spectrometer science detector (SPEC) and slit-viewing camera (SCAM). Commissioning began in 2018 December, producing the first on-sky images used in the characterization of the upgraded system. Through the use of photometry and spectroscopy of standard stars and internal calibration lamps, we assess the performance of the upgraded SPEC and SCAM detectors. First, we evaluate the gain, readnoise, dark current, and the charge persistence of the spec detector. We then characterize the newly upgraded spectrometer and the resulting improvements in sensitivity, including spectroscopic zero points, pixel scale, and resolving power across the spectrometer detector field. Finally, for SCAM, we present zero points, pixel scale, and provide a map of the geometric distortion of the camera. 
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  6. Evans, Christopher J.; Bryant, Julia J.; Motohara, Kentaro (Ed.)
    Exoplanets are abundant in our galaxy and yet characterizing them remains a technical challenge. Solar System planets provide an opportunity to test the practical limitations of exoplanet observations with high signal-to-noise data that we cannot access for exoplanets. However, data on Solar System planets differ from exoplanets in that Solar System planets are spatially resolved while exoplanets are unresolved point-sources. We present a novel instrument designed to observe Solar System planets as though they are exoplanets, the Planet as Exoplanet Analog Spectrograph (PEAS). PEAS consists of a dedicated 0.5-m telescope and off-the-shelf optics, located at Lick Observatory. PEAS uses an integrating sphere to disk-integrate light from the Solar System planets, producing spatially mixed light more similar to the spectra we can obtain from exoplanets. This paper describes the general system design and early results of the PEAS instrument. 
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