First light and results for atmospheric characterization with NIRPS

Romain Allart ( Université de Montréal )

The Near Infra-Red Planet Searcher (NIRPS) is a new fiber-fed high spectral resolution spectrograph assisted by adaptive optics installed on the 3.6m telescope of ESO at LaSilla, Chile. Operated simultaneously with HARPS, NIRPS covers the near-infrared from 0.95 to 1.8 microns at a spectral resolution of ~70k and ~80k for the high-efficiency and high-accuracy mode, respectively. The commissioning phase demonstrated high stability for radial velocity measurements but also for time-series observations typically acquired for atmospheric studies. In this talk, I will describe the objectives of the NIRPS consortium that has been allocated 725 nights of Guaranteed Time Observations (GTO) in the next 5 years. A third of this time will be dedicated to atmospheric characterization to provide detailed high-fidelity high signal-to-noise transmission and emission spectra as well as large comprehensive atmospheric surveys. To conclude, I will present the first results that have been obtained during commissioning and the first month of operations, including the detection of water vapor in the atmosphere of WASP-127b.