The GMT-Consortium Large Earth Finder (G-CLEF) will be part of the first generation instrumentation suite for the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT). G-CLEF is a general purpose echelle spectrograph operating in the optical passband with precision radial velocity (PRV) capability. The measurement precision goal of G-CLEF is 10 cm/sec; necessary for the detection of Earth analogues. This goal imposes challenging stability requirements on the optical mounts and spectrograph support structures especially when considering the instrument's operational environment. G-CLEF's accuracy will be influenced by changes in temperature and ambient air pressure, vibration, and micro gravity-vector variations caused by normal telescope motions. For these reasons we have chosen to enclose G-CLEF's spectrograph in a well-insulated, vibration-isolated vacuum chamber in a gravity invariant location on GMT's azimuth platform. Additional design constraints posed by the GMT telescope include; a limited space envelope, a thermal leakage ceiling, and a maximum weight allowance. Other factors, such as manufacturability, serviceability, available technology, and budget are also significant design drivers.

The GMT-Consortium Large Earth Finder (G-CLEF) is one of the first instrument for the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT). The G-CLEF is a fiber fed, optical band echelle spectrograph that is capable of extremely precise radial velocity measurement. The G-CLEF Flexure Control Camera (FCC) is included as a part in the G-CLEF Front End Assembly (GCFEA), which monitors the field images focused on a fiber mirror to control the flexure and the focus errors within the GCFEA. The five optical components constituting the FCC are aligned on a common optical bench. The order of the optical train is: a collimator, neutral density filters, a focus analyzer, a reimaging camera barrel, and a detector module. The collimator receives the beam reflected by the fiber mirror and consists of a triplet lens. The neutral density filters are located just after the collimator to make it possible a broad range star brightness as a target or a guide. The tent prism focus analyzer is positioned at a pupil produced by the collimator and is used to measure a focus offset. The reimaging camera barrel includes two pairs of doublet lenses to focus the beam onto the CCD focal plane. The detector module is composed of a linear translator and a field de-rotator. In this article, we present the optical and mechanical detailed designs of the G-CLEF FCC.

The GMT-Consortium Large Earth Finder (G-CLEF), one of the first light instruments for the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT), is a fiber-fed, high-resolution echelle spectrograph. G-CLEF is expected to proceed towards fabrication in the coming months. In this paper, we present the current, pre-construction G-CLEF optical design, with an emphasis on the innovative features derived for the spectrograph fiber-feed, the implementation of a volume-phase holographic (VPH)-based cross disperser with enhanced blue throughput and our novel solutions for a multi-colored exposure meter and a flat-fielding system.

Barnard's star is a red dwarf, and has the largest proper motion (apparent motion across the sky) of all known stars. At a distance of 1.8 parsecs(1), it is the closest single star to the Sun; only the three stars in the alpha Centauri system are closer. Barnard's star is also among the least magnetically active red dwarfs known(2,3) and has an estimated age older than the Solar System. Its properties make it a prime target for planetary searches; various techniques with different sensitivity limits have been used previously, including radial-velocity imagine(4-6), astrometry(7,8 )and direct imaging(9), but all ultimately led to negative or null results. Here we combine numerous measurements from high-precision radial-velocity instruments, revealing the presence of a low-amplitude periodic signal with a period of 233 days. Independent photometric and spectroscopic monitoring, as well as an analysis of instrumental systematic effects, suggest that this signal is best explained as arising from a planetary companion. The candidate planet around Barnard's star is a cold super-Earth, with a minimum mass of 3.2 times that of Earth, orbiting near its snow line (the minimum distance from the star at which volatile compounds could condense). The combination of all radial-velocity datasets spanning 20 years of measurements additionally reveals a long-term modulation that could arise from a stellar magnetic-activity cycle or from a more distant planetary object. Because of its proximity to the Sun, the candidate planet has a maximum angular separation of 220 milliarcseconds from Barnard's star, making it an excellent target for direct imaging and astrometric observations in the future.

We report the first discovery of a multi-planetary system by the HATSouth network, HATS-59b,c, a planetary system with an inner transiting hot Jupiter and an outer cold massive giant planet, which was detected via radial velocity. The inner transiting planet, HATS-59b, is on an eccentric orbit with e = 0.129 +/- 0.049, orbiting a V = 13.951 +/- 0.030 mag solar-like star (M-star = 1.038 +/- 0.039 M-circle dot and R-star = 1.036 +/- 0.067 R-circle dot) with a period of 5.416081 +/- 0.000016 days. The outer companion, HATS-59c is on a circular orbit with m sin i = 12.70 +/- 0.87 M-J and a period of 1422 +/- 14 days. The inner planet has a mass of 0.806 +/- 0.069 M-J and a radius of 1.126 +/- 0.077 R-J, yielding a density of 0.70 +/- 0.16 g cm(-3). Unlike most planetary systems that include only a single hot Jupiter, HATS-59b, c includes, in addition to the transiting hot Jupiter, a massive outer companion. The architecture of this system is valuable for understanding planet migration.

We describe the design and performance of the near-infrared (1.51-1.70 mu m), fiber-fed, multi-object (300 fibers), high resolution (R = lambda/Delta lambda similar to 22,500) spectrograph built for the Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE). APOGEE is a survey of similar to 10(5) red giant stars that systematically sampled all Milky Way populations (bulge, disk, and halo) to study the Galaxy's chemical and kinematical history. It was part of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey III (SDSS-III) from 2011 to 2014 using the 2.5 m Sloan Foundation Telescope at Apache Point Observatory, New Mexico. The APOGEE-2 survey is now using the spectrograph as part of SDSS-IV, as well as a second spectrograph, a close copy of the first, operating at the 2.5 m du Pont Telescope at Las Campanas Observatory in Chile. Although several fiber-fed, multi-object, high resolution spectrographs have been built for visual wavelength spectroscopy, the APOGEE spectrograph is one of the first such instruments built for observations in the near-infrared. The instrument's successful development was enabled by several key innovations, including a "gang connector" to allow simultaneous connections of 300 fibers; hermetically sealed feedthroughs to allow fibers to pass through the cryostat wall continuously; the first cryogenically deployed mosaic volume phase holographic grating; and a large refractive camera that includes mono-crystalline silicon and fused silica elements with diameters as large as similar to 400 mm. This paper contains a comprehensive description of all aspects of the instrument including the fiber system, optics and opto-mechanics, detector arrays, mechanics and cryogenics, instrument control, calibration system, optical performance and stability, lessons learned, and design changes for the second instrument.

The future of exoplanet science is bright, as Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) once again demonstrates with the discovery of its longest-period confirmed planet to date. We hereby present HD 21749b (TOI 186.01), a sub-Neptune in a 36 day orbit around a bright (V = 8.1) nearby (16 pc) K4.5 dwarf. TESS measures HD 21749b to be 2.61(-0.16)(+0.17)R(circle plus), and combined archival and follow-up precision radial velocity data put the mass of the planet at 22.7(-1.9)(+2.2)M(circle plus). HD 21749b contributes to the TESS Level 1 Science Requirement of providing 50 transiting planets smaller than 4 R-circle plus with measured masses. Furthermore, we report the discovery of HD 21749c (TOI 186.02), the first Earth-sized (R-p = 0.8921(-0.058)(+0.064)R(circle plus)) planet from TESS. The HD 21749 system is a prime target for comparative studies of planetary composition and architecture in multi-planet systems.

We report the detection of a transiting Earth-size planet around GJ 357, a nearby M2.5 V star, using data from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). GJ 357 b (TOI-562.01) is a transiting, hot, Earth-sized planet (T-eq = 525 +/- 11 K) with a radius of R-b = 1.217 +/- 0.084 R-circle plus and an orbital period of P-b = 3.93 d. Precise stellar radial velocities from CARMENES and PFS, as well as archival data from HIRES, UVES, and HARPS also display a 3.93-day periodicity, confirming the planetary nature and leading to a planetary mass of M-b = 1.84 +/- 0.31 M-circle plus. In addition to the radial velocity signal for GJ 357 b, more periodicities are present in the data indicating the presence of two further planets in the system: GJ 357 c, with a minimum mass of M-c = 3.40 +/- 0.46 M-circle plus in a 9.12 d orbit, and GJ 357 d, with a minimum mass of M-d = 6.1 +/- 1.0 M-circle plus in a 55.7 d orbit inside the habitable zone. The host is relatively inactive and exhibits a photometric rotation period of P-rot = 78 +/- 2 d. GJ 357 b is to date the second closest transiting planet to the Sun, making it a prime target for further investigations such as transmission spectroscopy. Therefore, GJ 357 b represents one of the best terrestrial planets suitable for atmospheric characterization with the upcoming JWST and ground-based ELTs.

The search for Earth-like planets around late-type stars using ultrastable spectrographs requires a very precise characterization of the stellar activity and the magnetic cycle of the star, since these phenomena induce radial velocity (RV) signals that can be misinterpreted as planetary signals. Among the nearby stars, we have selected Barnard's Star (Gl 699) to carry out a characterization of these phenomena using a set of spectroscopic data that covers about 14.5yr and comes from seven different spectrographs: HARPS, HARPS-N, CARMENES, HIRES, UVES, APF, and PFS; and a set of photometric data that covers about 15.1yr and comes from four different photometric sources: ASAS, FCAPT-RCT, AAVSO, and SNO. We have measured different chromospheric activity indicators (H alpha, CaiiHK, and Nai D), as well as the full width at half-maximum (FWHM), of the cross-correlation function computed for a sub-set of the spectroscopic data. The analysis of generalized Lomb-Scargle periodograms of the time series of different activity indicators reveals that the rotation period of the star is 145 +/- 15d, consistent with the expected rotation period according to the low activity level of the star and previous claims. The upper limit of the predicted activity-induced RV signal corresponding to this rotation period is about 1ms(-1). We also find evidence of a long-term cycle of 10 +/- 2yr that is consistent with previous estimates of magnetic cycles from photometric time series in other M stars of similar activity levels. The available photometric data of the star also support the detection of both the long-term and the rotation signals.

We report the detection of a transiting super-Earth-sized planet (R = 1.39 +/- 0.09 R-circle plus) in a 1.4-day orbit around L 168-9 (TOI-134), a bright M1V dwarf (V = 11, K = 7.1) located at 25.15 +/- 0.02 pc. The host star was observed in the first sector of the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) mission. For confirmation and planet mass measurement purposes, this was followed up with ground-based photometry, seeing-limited and high-resolution imaging, and precise radial velocity (PRV) observations using the HARPS and Magellan/PFS spectrographs. By combining the TESS data and PRV observations, we find the mass of L 168-9 b to be 4.60 +/- 0.56 M-circle plus and thus the bulk density to be 1.74(-0.33)(+0.44) times higher than that of the Earth. The orbital eccentricity is smaller than 0.21 (95% confidence). This planet is a level one candidate for the TESS mission's scientific objective of measuring the masses of 50 small planets, and it is one of the most observationally accessible terrestrial planets for future atmospheric characterization.