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20170013_0007

© Sébastien CHASTANET/OMP/IRAP/CNRS Images

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20170013_0007

Prismes du spectrographe de l’instrument SPIRou

Prisms of the SPIRou (InfraRed SpectroPolarimeter) instrument’s spectrograph, secured on their mechanical mounts by means of various aluminium flexible connections specially designed by NRC - H (Victoria, Canada) for the spectrograph’s cryogenic temperatures (80 kelvin or close to -200°C). 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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