New Exoplanet Surveys in the Canadian High Arctic at 80 Degrees North

TL;DR

This paper discusses the development and testing of new astronomical instruments at the Canadian High Arctic site to enhance exoplanet surveys, leveraging continuous darkness for improved detection of transiting exoplanets.

Contribution

It introduces novel Arctic-based telescopes and imaging systems, including a robotic telescope and wide-field cameras, and proposes the conceptual design of the CATS survey system.

Findings

Successful testing of wide-field cameras at the site

Design and testing of a 0.5m Arctic telescope

Proposal for a multiplexed Arctic transient survey system

Abstract

Observations from near the Eureka station on Ellesmere Island, in the Canadian High Arctic at 80 degrees North, benefit from 24-hour darkness combined with dark skies and long cloud-free periods during the winter. Our first astronomical surveys conducted at the site are aimed at transiting exoplanets; compared to mid-latitude sites, the continuous darkness during the Arctic winter greatly improves the survey's detection efficiency for longer-period transiting planets. We detail the design, construction, and testing of the first two instruments: a robotic telescope, and a set of very wide-field imaging cameras. The 0.5m Dunlap Institute Arctic Telescope has a 0.8-square-degree field of view and is designed to search for potentially habitable exoplanets around low-mass stars. The very wide field cameras have several-hundred-square-degree fields of view pointed at Polaris, are designed to search for transiting planets around bright stars, and were tested at the site in February 2012. Finally, we present a conceptual design for the Compound Arctic Telescope Survey (CATS), a multiplexed transient and transit search system which can produce a 10,000-square-degree snapshot image every few minutes throughout the Arctic winter.