Anúncio

Em busca de novas Super Terras: o instrumento CRIRES+ do Very Large Telescope do ESO vê a sua primeira luz

1 de Fevereiro de 2021

Desde a sua primeira luz em 2006 que o espectrógrafo infravermelho de alta resolução CRIRES montado no Very Large Telescope (VLT) do ESO tem vindo a fazer um elevado número de descobertas científicas. O novo e melhorado CRIRES+, que viu agora a sua primeira luz, irá continuar o trabalho do seu predecessor e procurar exoplanetas do tipo super-Terra potencialmente habitáveis.

CRIRES+, um instrumento construído pelo ESO em colaboração com um consórcio de institutos europeus, irá perscrutar os céus em busca de exoplanetas do tipo super-Terra situados em zonas de habitabilidade de estrelas próximas de pequena massa, a zona de órbitas planetárias onde os cientistas acreditam que um planeta poderá suportar vida. Este tipo de exoplanetas são difíceis de detectar devido às suas massas relativamente baixas. Com o CRIRES+, os cientistas estarão melhor equipados para procurar estas super-Terras, já que poderão mapear a maioria das estrelas na nossa vizinhança estelar. Outros objetivos científicos do CRIRES+ incluem estudar a atmosfera de exoplanetas em trânsito e a origem e evolução de campos magnéticos estelares.

A instalação do instrumento no VLT do ESO, situado no Observatório do Paranal do ESO no Chile, ficou completa no final de Fevereiro do ano passado, com a primeira luz prevista para pouco depois. No entanto, e devido à pandemia de COVID-19, foi necessário adiar as primeiras observações de teste, que estavam programadas para ocorrer remotamente a partir da Sede do ESO em Garching, numa ação pioneira para o ESO.

O CRIRESbaseia-se no seu predecessor, o CRIRES (CRyogenic high-resolution InfraRed Echelle Spectrograph). O CRIRES foi instalado no VLT em 2006 e trata-se de um espectrógrafo, um instrumento que separa a luz infravermelha colectada nas suas cores individuais e tira partido de um módulo de óptica adaptativa, o qual corrige as distorções nas imagens devidas à turbulência atmosférica terrestre.

Agora, quase 15 anos depois, o CRIRES sofreu um melhoramento importante que o transformou e remodelou o seu sistema de óptica adaptativa. “A atualização aumenta de um factor 10 o domínio de comprimentos de onda que o instrumento pode cobrir em simultâneo,” de acordo com o gestor de projeto do ESO para o CRIRES+, Reinhold Dorn. “O CRIRES+ pode, por isso, aceder a um parâmetro espacial que até agora permanecia grandemente inexplorado pelo VLT,” acrescenta Dorn.

Desde a sua instalação que o CRIRES tem feito muitas descobertas científicas tais como a medição pela primeira vez da duração de um dia num exoplaneta e a determinação da temperatura da atmosfera completa de Plutão. Os cientistas esperam usar o CRIRES+ para continuar a fazer descobertas notáveis como as levadas a cabo com o CRIRES.

“O CRIRES+ será o único espectrógrafo infravermelho de alta resolução montado num telescópio da classe dos 8 metros equipado com um sistema de óptica adaptativa de vanguarda. Este facto fará deste instrumento uma ferramenta crucial no estudo de exoplanetas em órbita de estrelas de pequena massa,” disse o cientista líder do CRIRES+, o Investigador Principal do Consórcio, Artie Hatzes, do Observatório de Tautenburg, Estado de Turíngia, Alemanha. “Em particular, o CRIRES+ será insuperável no que diz respeito ao estudo de atmosferas de planetas usando observações feitas a partir do solo.

Mais informação

O consórcio CRIRES+ liderado pelo ESO é constituído por: ESO (Alemanha e Chile), Institut für Astrophysik, Georg-August Universität Göttingen (Alemanha), Thüringer Landessternwarte Tautenburg (Alemanha), Departamento de Física e Astronomia, Universidade de Uppsala (Suécia), INAF Osservatorio di Arcetri (Itália), INAF Osservatorio di Bologna (Itália). O Investigador Principal do instrumento é Artie Hatzes da Thüringer Landessternwarte Tautenburg (Observatório de Tautenburg, Estado de Turíngia), Alemanha.

Links

Contactos

Reinhold Dorn
ESO
Tel: +49 89 3200 6547
Email: rdorn@eso.org  

Joël Daniel Roger Vernet
ESO
Tel: +49 89 3200 6579
Email: jvernet@eso.org

Elena Valenti
ESO
Tel: +49 89 3200 6120
Email: evalenti@eso.org 

Bárbara Ferreira
ESO Public Information Officer
Garching bei München, Alemanha
Telm: +49 151 241 664 00
Email: pio@eso.org

Sobre o anúncio

Id:ann21003

Imagens

O instrumento CRIRES+
O instrumento CRIRES+
A equipa CRIRES+
A equipa CRIRES+

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