IAU SPECIAL EDITION JULY 2003 NEWSLETTER ANGLO-AUSTRALIAN OBSERVATORY AAO OF THE FUTURE Next generation fibre positioning robots. Microrobotic technology based on the AAO’s Echidna system allows accurate positioning of payloads such as single fibres, guide bundles, mini- IFUs or even pick-off mirrors to be accurately positioned on large focal plates for large and ‘extremely large’ telescopes. See article on page 18. contents 3The Anglo-Australian Planet Search finDs a new “Solar System”-like gas giant (Chris Tinney et al.) 4RAVE hits the galaxy (FreD Watson et al.) 8A search for the highest reDshift raDio galaxies (Carlos De Breuck et al.) 9The 6DF Galaxy Survey (Will SaunDers et al.) 14 The end of observations for the 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey (Matthew Colless et al.) 18 Directions for future instrumentation Development by the AAO (AnDrew McGrath et al.) 20 AAΩ: the successor to 2dF (Terry Bridges et al.) DIRECTOR’S MESSAGE DIRECTOR’S DIRECTOR’S MESSAGE On behalf of the staff of the Anglo-Australian Observatory, I would like to extend a warm welcome to Sydney to all IAU General Assembly delegates. This special GA edition of the AAO newsletter showcases some of the AAO’s achievements over the past year as well as some exciting new directions in which the AAO is heading in the future. Over the past few years the AAO has increasingly sought to build on its scientific and technical expertise through the design and building of astronomical instrumentation for overseas observatories, whilst maintaining its own telescopes as world-class facilities. The success of science programs such as the Anglo-Australian Planet Search and the 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey amply demonstrate that the AAO is still facilitating the production of outstanding science by its user communities. Driven by the need to provide innovative technological solutions to challenging scientific requirements, the AAO has also excelled in instrumentation. The success of the 2dF project from both a technical and scientific viewpoint set the AAO on the path of developing its ability to provide instrumentation solutions not only for its own telescopes but also for other major observatories such as ESO VLT, Gemini and Subaru. Recent examples highlighted in this newsletter include IRIS2 for the AAT, 6dF for the UK Schmidt and the Echidna design for the Subaru FMOS program. The success of these most recent instrumentation programs is perhaps best seen from the quality of the scientific results. IRIS2 is now producing wide field infrared images of stunning quality and depth and the 6dF galaxy survey is now (June 2003) almost one third complete with over 65000 objects observed. There are many other scientific and technological initiatives being developed at the AAO. These include ambitious science programs such as the Radial Velocity Experiment (RAVE) on the UK Schmidt. Although still in the planning phase when the original newsletter article was written, the survey has now begun and amassed over 6600 radial velocities to date; already a 30% increase in the number of accurate stellar radial velocities suitable for large- scale dynamical/chemical analysis of our own Milky Way Galaxy. The AAO is also planning new instrumentation for the AAT, including the AAOmega spectrograph which will enhance the scientific exploitation of 2dF’s wide field-of-view. Looking further to the future, the AAO is also seeking to develop opportunities associated with the next generation of Extremely Large Telescopes (ELTs) where it can directly benefit the UK-Australian community it serves. Consistent with the AAO’s strategic vision for the future, this will be through the development of technological IP in areas such as robotics, fibre optics and tunable filters. The newsletter article by the instrument science team highlights some of the highly innovative work already being done in these areas. The AAO of the Future is therefore filled with new opportunities and directions. It has been a privilege to serve as AAO Director over the past seven years. Throughout that period, I have received unwavering support from a world-class staff and user community. As I look forward to my own exciting new future as ATNF Director, I know that I leave the AAO in a strong position to meet the challenges of the future. Brian Boyle ANGLO-AUSTRALIAN OBSERVATORY page 2 NEWSLETTER JULY 2003 made with the UCLES echelle spectrograph and an THE ANGLO-AUSTRALIAN PLANET iodine absorption cell. The iodine cell (seen at left with SEARCH FINDS A NEW “SOLAR the iodine in the cell vapourised to form a pale purple SCIENCE HIGHLIGHTS SYSTEM”-LIKE GAS GIANT. gas) provides a phenomenally stable wavelength Chris Tinney (AAO), Brad Carter (USQ), calibration from 5000 to 6000Å. The iodine cell also Paul Butler (CIW), Hugh Jones (LJMU), allows us to measure the spectrograph point spread Geoff Marcy (Berkeley), Chris McCarthy function for every observation with incredible precision. (CIW) & Alan Penny (RAL) It is this control over the spectrograph’s performance which enables us to achieve our measured velocity The Anglo-Australian Planet Search (AAPS) is a long- stability of 3m/s (for suitably stable stars) Down to our term program being carried out on the Anglo-Australian V=7.7 survey limit – the best precision yet demonstrated Telescope (AAT) to search for giant planets arounD 250 by any Southern hemisphere planet search program nearby Solar-type stars with V<7.7. (Butler et al. 2001), and similar to (if not often better than) the iodine systems on the Lick 3-m and the Keck AAPS began in January 1998 observing 200 target stars 10-m. over 20 nights per year, and has since grown to 32 nights per year targeting our expanded 250 star sample. Prior to the discovery of extrasolar planets, planetary Fifteen planet candidates with M sin i values ranging systems were generally predicted to be architecturally from 0.2 to 10Mjup have since been iDentifieD from our similar to the Solar System – with giant planets orbiting program (Tinney et al. 2001; Butler et al. 2001; Tinney beyond 4 a.u. in circular orbits, and terrestrial mass et al. 2002a; Jones et al. 2002a; Butler et al. 2002; planets inhabiting the inner few a.u. The dangers of Jones et al. 2002b; Tinney et al. 2003a; Jones et al. extrapolating a complex theoretical framework from one 2003), and an additional four planet candidates have example, however, have been starkly demonstrated by been confirmed using AAT data (Butler et al. 2001) – a our extrasolar planetary discoveries. Their behaviour significant fraction of the 77 planets currently listed by is quite different, with these systems proving to be much the IAU’s Working Group on Extrasolar Planets.1 more diverse than ever imagined. Our precision Doppler velocity measurements are In particular, the vast majority of extrasolar planets detected to date have been found to lie in elliptical orbits, which woulD precluDe the existence of “habitable”2 terrestrial planets. The only gas giant planet so far found to orbit beyond 3 a.u. is the outer planet of the 47 Ursa Majoris system – a system which also includes an inner gas giant at 2 a.u. (unlike the Solar System.) The announcement by the AAPS at the “Extrasolar Planets: Today and Tomorrow” conference in Paris last week (July 1–4) of a new planet orbiting the star HD70642 is particularly exciting (Carter et al., 2003). HD70642 is a nearby (28.8pc) G5 dwarf with V=7.2. AAPS spectra show the star is quite inactive with logRHK=–4.9. The upper panel on page 4 compares its Ca H line with that of the Sun. Based on this it has a chromospherically inferred age of ~4 Gyr. Spectral synthesis indicates a slightly elevated metallicity over the Sun at [Fe/H]=+0.16. Most excitingly, this planet’s dynamics indicate a circular orbit with a 6.0 year period, placing the planet (which has a minimum mass of 2.0Mjup) at 3.3 a.u. This makes 2 Where we aDopt the usual anthropocentric 1http://www.ciw.edu/boss/IAU/div3/wgesp/ paraDigm for “habitability” of a stable environment planets.shtml permitting the presence of liquid water at the surface. Life Jim, but only as we know it. ANGLO-AUSTRALIAN OBSERVATORY NEWSLETTER page 3 JULY 2003 the HD70642 system the best “Solar System” analog RAVE HITS THE GALAXY yet found. SCIENCE HIGHLIGHTS Fred Watson for the international RAVE The AAPS’s long term goal however is to determine (or team1 place meaningful limits on) the number of planetary systems with planets just like Jupiter. Such observations When an experimental multi-fibre system for the UK require the detection of gas giant planets in 12 year Schmidt Telescope was first proposed more than orbits, so this important program is planned to continue twenty years ago, it was with wide-field surveys of operations for at least the next 10 years. stellar radial velocities in mind. Fortunately, as soon as the primitive fibre system appeared, it was hijacked by the galaxy redshift brigade – which almost certainly saved it from oblivion. Stellar radial-velocity surveys were rather unglamorous in the early 1980s. The UK Schmidt is still observing galaxies today, most notably as part of the 6dF Galaxy Survey (6dFGS) being carried out with the telescope’s fourth-generation multi-fibre system. By the time it is completed in mid- 2005, the new 6dF survey will have produced redshifts for something like 150,000 galaxies over the whole southern sky (with peculiar velocities for about ten percent of the sample). Meanwhile, how many stellar radial velocities do you think the world’s astronomers have in their data archives? Astonishingly, it is only about 20,000.