概况 | Overview

  

  西班牙GTC高分辨率超稳定光谱仪(简称CHORUS)是由中科院国家天文台与南京天文光学技术研究所共同承担的一项基于国际合作的重大科研仪器研制项目,西班牙加那利天体物理研究所IAC与GTC天文台为项目合作方。项目旨在中西合作框架下,由中方研制一台高分辨率超稳定光谱仪,安装在GTC望远镜上,获得≤0.3米/秒高精度视向速度测量能力。光谱仪的工作波段为310-780nm,采用双波段组合的创新方案,提供近紫外波段分辨率R≥20,000、可见光波段分辨率R≥100,000的光谱观测能力。在近紫外波段开展化学元素丰度分析、恒星色球活动监测等前沿研究,在可见光波段开展以高精度视向速度测量为主的系外行星搜寻与研究,推动中国系外行星研究跻身国际前列。以此光谱仪为实物贡献,中国将成为GTC望远镜的正式合作伙伴,使中国天文学家能获得目前世界上最大光学望远镜的保障性观测时间,使用其全部终端仪器开展科学研究,缓解中国长期缺乏大口径望远镜的困难,推动前沿科学研究取得突破性进展。建成后,将助力中国在系外行星等领域取得突出的前沿研究成果,对于LAMOST和FAST发现的特殊天体的后随观测等方面发挥重要作用。

 

  

  Under the Chinese and Spanish astronomical cooperation, GTC-HRS is a high-resolution ultra-stable spectrograph in development for the Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC) at La Palma, Spain. Being expected to conduct precise radial velocity (PRV) measurement with extreme precision of up to 10 cm/s, the instrument would promote the very high, present interest in the astronomical community to detect and characterize exoplanets. The instrument includes a near-UV band spectrograph (UVS) and a visible band spectrograph (VIS). They jointly provide a spectral resolving power of R ≥ 20,000 in the UV band (310 nm – 420 nm) and R ≥ 100,000 in the visible band (420 nm – 780 nm). Besides the PRV measurement, this instrument design allows extending various science cases like characterizing extremely metal-poor stars and measuring the ages of the Galaxy’s oldest stars.

  The project successfully passed the conceptual design review (CoDR) by an international review panel in June 2019.