| NSF Org: |
AST Division Of Astronomical Sciences |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | February 16, 2016 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | December 1, 2023 |
| Award Number: | 1559596 |
| Award Instrument: | Cooperative Agreement |
| Program Manager: |
Chris J. Davis
chrdavis@nsf.gov (703)292-4910 AST Division Of Astronomical Sciences MPS Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences |
| Start Date: | January 1, 2016 |
| End Date: | September 30, 2024 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $3,008,141.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $15,041,254.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
FY 2017 = $1,676,218.00 FY 2018 = $2,138,140.00 FY 2019 = $1,620,337.00 FY 2020 = $2,061,218.00 FY 2021 = $1,621,936.00 FY 2022 = $1,876,557.00 FY 2023 = $2,770,381.00 |
| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
950 N CHERRY AVE TUCSON AZ US 85719-4933 (202)483-2101 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
950 N. Cherry Avenue Tucson AZ US 85719-4933 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): | NOIRLab-WIYN Telescope Ops |
| Primary Program Source: |
01002223RB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT 01002324DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT 01002223DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT 01001617DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT 01001718DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT 01002021DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT 01001920RB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT 01001819RB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT 01001920DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT 01002122RB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT 01002324RB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT 01001718RB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT 01001819DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT 01002021RB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT 01002122DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT |
| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.049 |
ABSTRACT
Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO) will operate and maintain the WIYN 3.5-m telescope
located near Tucson, Arizona, during the FY16 through FY18 period to enable the following three key activities: (a) approximately 270 nights for scientific research related to the study of planets orbiting other stars (so-called exoplanets) and their host stars, within the framework of the joint NASA-NSF Exoplanet Observational Research (NN-EXPLORE) program; (b) FY18 installation of the Extreme Precision Doppler Spectrometer (EPDS), to be used to determine the masses of exoplanets discovered by NASA space missions such as Kepler and the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS); and (c) essential corrective and preventive technical maintenance as well as minor technology upgrades as needed for the WIYN facility and its instrumentation. KPNO operates and maintains WIYN on behalf of the WIYN partnership, whose equity members are the U. of Wisconsin, Indiana U., and the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO), joined by operational partner U. of Missouri-Columbia. KPNO is a unit of NOAO, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. (AURA) under cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation (NSF).
Intellectual Merit: It is now well established that many stellar systems in our Milky Way host one or more exoplanets. The mix of host stellar system properties (single vs. multiple stars, stellar chemical composition and temperature, etc.) and exoplanet system properties (e.g., number of exoplanets per star, relative arrangements within each system, exoplanet composition) is astonishing and largely unanticipated. Before the origins of that mix can be understood, the nature of the exoplanets and their host stars must be understood. The current observational goal is to classify exoplanets as gas-dominated (like Neptune), ice-dominated, or rock-dominated (like Earth) and then compare those classifications to measured stellar properties. Surely, they must be tightly connected since the stellar and exoplanet systems formed from the same cloud of atomic and molecular gas. During the period of this program, WIYN will be used primarily to study the properties of exoplanet host stars. After EPDS is installed, WIYN will be used to measure exoplanet mass, which is required to determine if an exoplanet is primarily gaseous, icy, or rocky. Research enabled by this program will strengthen the foundations for identifying and characterizing Earth-like exoplanets in the nearby cosmos.
Broader Impacts: Open access for enquiry-based research via peer review and open data for all will allow scientists and citizens to engage in the NOAO/WIYN research enterprise no matter who they are or where they work. The EPDS story, its technology as well as its measures of exoplanet mass and what we learn from that, will be a central public engagement opportunity at the Kitt Peak Visitor Center, which receives more than 40,000 visitors per year. The EPDS project brings together two federal agencies, three US federal research centers, and several US universities as well as highly specialized industrial partners. Many participants are early career scientists, some as early as undergraduate. In turn, the EPDS project will transform the WIYN into one of the premier radial velocity survey facilities in the world.
PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
Outcomes Report
WIYN CSA AST-1559596
Project Overview:
With the support of this award, the WIYN Observatory installed, commissioned, and currently operates the NEID extreme precision radial velocity (EPRV) spectrometer. NEID is the cornerstone of the NASA-NSF Exoplanet Observational Research Program (NN-EXPLORE) that aims to detect, verify, and measure the masses of planets around nearby sun-like stars. WIYN carried out facility modifications to build a clean room enclosure for NEID with stringent thermal control and also designed the NEID Port Adapter, a fiber feed for NEID with tip-tilt correction. The Port Adapter was fabricated by the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a WIYN University partner. Over the period 2016-2023, NN-EXPLORE has enabled the US astronomical community to carry out high-impact exoplanet research, with between 125-150 nights per year allocated through the NOIRLab NN-EXPLORE time allocation process. Prior to NEID coming online for full science operations in 2021, other facility instruments at WIYN were used, with a focus on exoplanet and exoplanet host star related science. This award further enabled the general operations and maintenance of the Telescope and Observatory.
Intellectual Merit Outcomes:
Prior to Fall 2021, this award facilitated the development and commissioning of NEID at WIYN. Since Fall 2021, NEID has been used to push the lower-bound in the masses of exoplanets discovered by National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) missions such as the Kepler and Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and identifying high-impact targets for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and the Nancy Roman Space Telescope. WIYN is now one of the premier RV survey facilities in the world, and NEID will continue to be critical for pre-vetting the optimal targets for follow-up with the future US-ELT Program and NASA’s proposed Habitable Worlds Observatory. Research using NEID has already produced more than 50 peer-reviewed scientific publications to date since routine operations started in the Fall of 2021, with at least half a dozen papers either currently in the review process or in late-stage drafts. Ongoing work for NEID and the Observatory will continue in a new Renewed CSA that began in January 2024. The joint agency agreement, NN-EXPLORE, remains active.
Broader Impact Outcomes:
The NN-EXPLORE program at WIYN enables exoplanet research opportunities for the entire US astronomical community. Science with NEID contributed to 8+ PhD dissertations from 2022-2024. Graduate students and postdoctoral scholars make up almost 65% of NEID proposal principal investigators, and many early career researchers contributed to the design, construction, commissioning, and operation of NEID, including one of NSF NOIRLab’s two inaugural Postdoctoral Research Fellows. All NEID data will become public, with NEID’s standard star and solar data sets made public immediately, facilitating community studies of stellar astrophysics and allowing cross-comparison between EPRV instruments. The latter is important for improved characterization of EPRV instruments and their data calibration, as the field continues to push towards lower-mass planets. WIYN staff are active in the exoplanet community, communicating NEID’s capabilities through conference presentations and community workshops, working with NEID Users and EPRV instrument builders to facilitate collaboration and coordination. WIYN/NEID will also be featured in the upcoming Windows on the Universe Center at Kitt Peak, making EPRV science accessible to the public.
Last Modified: 01/23/2025
Modified by: Charles Mattias Mountain
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