NIRPS consortium awards Bach Research echelle grating contract for exoplanet research

March 21, 2017

Bach Research Corporation was awarded a contract by the NIRPS consortiumto deliver echelle gratings to find exoplanets.

Bach Research Corporation manufactures custom diffraction gratings and optical components and will deliver large echelle gratings for an ESO exoplanet-finding telescope.

Bach Research Corporation (Boulder, CO), manufacturer of custom diffraction gratings and optical components for OEM, aerospace, defense, astronomy, and spaceflight instrumentation, was awarded a contract by the NIRPS consortium, represented by the Institute for research on Exoplanets (iREx) from Université de Montréal and the Observatoire de Genève from Université de Genève, to manufacture and deliver a custom echelle grating and spares that will be used in the NIRPS (Near Infrared Planet Searcher) Instrument to find exoplanets.

The R4 echelle grating is 90 x 320mm with a blaze angle of 76 degrees.

NIRPS is a high-resolution, near-infrared, fiber-fed and cross-dispersed echelle spectrograph designed for accurate radial-velocity (RV) measurements. NIRPS will be installed on the 3.6 m European Southern Observatory (ESO) telescope located at La Silla.

The Institute for research on exoplanets (iREx) from Université de Montréal brings together top researchers and their students so as to benefit as much as possible from major current and upcoming observation projects, with the ultimate goal of finding life elsewhere. The Institute is devoted to exploring new worlds and seeking life on other planets.

SOURCE: Bach Research Corporation; http://bachresearch.com/

About the Author

Gail Overton | Senior Editor (2004-2020)

Gail has more than 30 years of engineering, marketing, product management, and editorial experience in the photonics and optical communications industry. Before joining the staff at Laser Focus World in 2004, she held many product management and product marketing roles in the fiber-optics industry, most notably at Hughes (El Segundo, CA), GTE Labs (Waltham, MA), Corning (Corning, NY), Photon Kinetics (Beaverton, OR), and Newport Corporation (Irvine, CA). During her marketing career, Gail published articles in WDM Solutions and Sensors magazine and traveled internationally to conduct product and sales training. Gail received her BS degree in physics, with an emphasis in optics, from San Diego State University in San Diego, CA in May 1986.