The NASA/NSF Exoplanet Program for WIYN

NASA and NSF in collaboration with NOAO are initiating a program of community-based exoplanet research using the NOAO 40% share of the WIYN telescope. This program would fulfill the decadal report’s recommendation that, “NASA and NSF should support an aggressive program of ground-based high-precision radial velocity surveys of nearby stars to identify potential candidates … for a future space imaging and spectroscopy mission.” The program will proceed in two phases. In semester 2015B, a pathfinder Guest Observer program for exoplanet science using existing instrumentation on WIYN will be initiated. NASA also intends to release a solicitation in early 2015 for a facility-class extreme precision radial velocity spectrometer for the WIYN telescope with the goal of commissioning in 2018. The second phase of the program is to offer an exoplanet-targeted guest and guaranteed time program at WIYN using the new radial velocity spectrometer and other existing WIYN instrumentation. NOAO will continue to operate its share of the WIYN telescope in support of this program.

Only a short time ago, NOAO intended to withdraw from the WIYN partnership in response to a recommendation from the NSF portfolio review. The new NASA/NSF initiative instead directs NOAO to support continued operation of WIYN by offering the community new leading-edge resources for exoplanet research. At this writing details of this transition remain to be worked out. This brief notice now is to alert the community that this new opportunity to engage in exoplanet research is on the way and that we will keep you informed as the program is developed.