Speaker
Description
Exoplanet surveys have recently progressed to the point of discovering small, potentially terrestrial planets orbiting in circumstellar habitable zones. Assessing the true degree of habitability of these worlds requires gaining knowledge of both their bulk and atmospheric properties. In this talk I will summarize the development of MAROON-X, which is a high precision radial velocity spectrograph that is scheduled to be commissioned at Gemini North as a visitor instrument in early 2019. MAROON-X is designed to measure the masses, and thus constrain the densities of potentially Earth-like worlds around late M dwarfs. I will describe how MAROON-X will be used in conjunction with facilities like TESS, JWST, and the ELTs to make the first credible searches for habitable environments beyond our Solar System.
