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20170013_0001

© Sébastien CHASTANET/OMP/IRAP/CNRS Images

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20170013_0001

Prismes successifs constituant le système dispersif du spectrographe de l’instrument SPIRou

Assembly of three successive prisms comprising the dispersive system of the SPIRou (InfraRed SpectroPolarimeter) instrument’s spectrograph. These prisms, whose materials were selected for infrared, are positioned to very precise angles and work on a double pass (outward and return journey of the light beam). SPIRou consists of a near-infrared spectropolarimeter combined with a high-precision velocimeter. Installed at the Cassegrain focus of the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) at the end of 2017, SPIRou was designed to detect habitable Earth-twin exoplanets in the planetary systems of red dwarf stars in the vicinity of the Sun. It could also unravel the mysteries of the birth of stars and planets, by observing for the first time the magnetic fields of protostars aged just a few hundred thousand years.

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