A Proposal of the RAVOMS Mission

Carl Tannler Abstract RAVOMS (Radial Velocity survey Of Multiple Star systems) is a mission proposed to the National Science Foundation (NSF). RAVOMS will produce a survey of multiple star systems that could be possible candidates as exoplanet hosts. Radial velocity signals will be measured for stellar systems that are known to be binaries and some triple star systems. RAVOMS will be a stabilized high echelle spectrograph externally calibrated in wavelength. It will be installed at the Southern African Large Telescope (SALT). RAVOMS will be built to obtain very high long term radial velocity accuracy which will be on the order of 1 m/s. RAVOMS is designed to have an echelle spectrograph fed by a paid of fibers, optimizing it for mechanical stability so its measurements are not corrupted by outside interactions. Being so stable, and being able to attain such a precision, will allow for many more exoplanet discoveries in binary and triple star systems. RAVOMS will cost on order of 14 million USD to build, but the benefits will greatly outweigh the cost. The information gathered by RAVOMS will be used to help form better planetary formation models. Currently, there are many holes in planet formation theory, and with new information gathered by RAVOMS about exoplanets in binary and triple star systems, new theories should come to light and help our understanding of planet formation and migration.

Introduction
The radial velocity method for exoplanet detection has been, and still is the most successful method for exoplanet detection. RAVOMS will want to be able to obtain the most precise radial velocity measurements possible. Over the past two decades, exoplanet discoveries have been increasingly exponentially. A lot of missions set out to discover exoplanets that may be located in the habitable range and may support life. Most exoplanet discoveries come from planets orbiting around a single star and a radial velocity survey has never been done of multiple star systems. RAVMOS looks to find planetary constraints when it comes to multiple star systems, specifically, binaries and triple star systems. Exoplanets have been recently discovered in the Alpha Centauri system which consists of 3 stars which means that multiple star systems can contain exoplanets. The survey will then allow other teams a catalog of systems that are likely to contain exoplanets and even specific Earth-like exoplanets contained in the habitable zone. RAVOMS is a mission designed to accomplish these goals with proper funding and time to accomplish the goals.

The RAVOMS MISSION

In order to obtain precise radial velocity measurements on multiple star systems, the RAVOMS spectrograph will need to be as mechanically stable as possible. In order to avoid temperature and pressure variations, RAVOMS will be contained in a vacuum chamber. The pressure variations are just the effects of refractive index variations of air. The vessel that will enclose RAVOMS has a volume of approximately 2m3 and is evacuated by a means of a turbo molecular pump. The only moving parts inside the

vessel will be the focusing mechanism of the camera, but that will be adjusted and locked well before the vessel is sealed. This will produce maximum long term stability. All of these specifications will create an instrument capable of very precise radial velocity measurements due to a high resolving power and a long term stability of the spectrograph. RAVOMS will have two fibers, one of the fibers collects star light, and the other one will either record the spectrum or the background sky. These two fibers together have an aperture on the sky of 1 arc second and a resolving power of 117,000. This means that RAVOMS will be able to distinguish features as small as 0.003 nm apart at a wavelength of 350 nm. The spectral range covered by the spectrograph is 350nm-700nm. The echelle spectrograph uses two diffraction gratings. Each of them are rotated 90 degrees from the other placed within close proximity of the other. An entrance point is used and a CCD-chip records the spectrum. Both gratings have a wide spacing and are optimized such that only the first order is visible. The other grating is set so that a lot higher orders are visible and this yields a very fine spectrum that gets nicely folded onto a CCD-chip. A lot of this design and mission are based off of the success of the High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS). HARPS has had a lot of success in discovering exoplanets since its construction, and RAVOMS looks to equal the success gained by HARPS, but with multiple star systems. Data from single star systems and multiple star systems can be used to help further many planet formation and migration theories.

Conclusions
RAVOMS will have a wide impact on astronomy. The contributions of its high accuracy radial velocity measurements on multiple star systems will yield data that can be used to help solidify planet formation theories and planet migration theories. As of now there is not much data help our understanding of how other stars can affect planet formation or migration patterns. The mechanical stability and high resolving power of the high accuracy echelle spectrometer will yield excellent results and significant discoveries. The data collected by RAVOMS will have a long lasting impact on exoplanet discovery and the data will be utilized for many years.

References
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