The Near-Infrared Gatherer of Helium Transits (NIGHT)

TL;DR

NIGHT is a high-resolution, narrowband spectrograph designed for exoplanet atmospheric studies, capable of detecting helium in exoplanet atmospheres with high efficiency and sensitivity, enabling extensive statistical surveys.

Contribution

The paper introduces the NIGHT instrument, a novel high-resolution near-infrared spectrograph optimized for helium transit observations, with unique design features and high throughput for exoplanet atmospheric research.

Findings

Achieves 71% throughput, comparable to larger telescopes.

Spectral resolution of 75,000 with a VPH grating in double-pass configuration.

Designed for efficient detection of helium in exoplanet atmospheres.

Abstract

This paper provides a comprehensive overview of the subsystems of the NIGHT instrument. NIGHT (the Near Infrared Gatherer of Helium Transits) is a narrowband, high-resolution spectrograph, marking the first dedicated survey instrument for exoplanetary atmosphere observations. Developed through a collaboration between the Observatory of Geneva and the Universite de Montreal, NIGHT aims to conduct an extensive statistical survey of helium atmospheres around 100+ exoplanets over several years. The instrument will report new detections of helium in exoplanet atmospheres and perform temporal monitoring of a subset of these. NIGHT measures absorption from the metastable helium state during exoplanet transits, observable in a triplet of lines around 1083nm. The instrument comprises a vacuum enclosure housing the spectrograph, a front end unit for fiber injection at the telescope's focal plane, and a calibration and control rack containing calibration light sources and control hardware. The spectrograph is optimized for efficiency, achieving a uniform throughput of approximately 71%. The primary disperser employs a VPH grating in a unique double-pass configuration, enabling a spectral resolution of 75,000 while maintaining high throughput. The detector is a HAWAII-1 infrared array, cooled to 85K, with the spectrograph operating at room temperature. Thanks to its relatively high throughput, NIGHT on a 2m class telescope is predicted to be as sensitive as existing instruments on 4m class telescopes. The front end unit injects starlight and sky background into two separate fibers leading to the spectrograph. It also performs near-infrared guiding and includes a mechanism for injecting calibration light. The assembly and optical alignment of NIGHT's spectrograph and front end unit are scheduled for July to September 2024, with the first light anticipated before early 2025.