CRIRES+
CRIRES+ is the upgraded CRIRES instrument. The old CRIRES was a high-resolution near-infrared spectrograph at the Very Large Telescope in Chile, operated by the European Southern Observatory. In 2014, the instrument was unmounted and shipped back to Germany to undergo an upgrade. The upgrade project, called CRIRES+, transformed the instrument into a cross-dispersed spectrograph, thereby increasing by a factor of ten the wavelength range that is covered simultaneously. In addition, a new spectropolarimetric unit was added, detectors and optical parts were changed, the calibration system was enhanced, and the data reduction system rewritten from scratch.
CRIRES cryostat in the main assembling hall of the ESO headquarters in Garching (Germany). Some of the instrument optics are still inside.
Uppsala University is part of the CRIRES+ consortium, together with the Thüringer Landessternwarte Tautenburg, the Institute for Astrophysics Göttingen, and the INAF Arcetri Astrophysical Observatory. We are responsible for the design and manufacturing of the polarimetric unit, and the design and implementation of the Data Reduction System. Moreover we contribute to the new detectors with the help of a grant from the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation.
Spectra of the star TW Hya taken with the original CRIRES and CRIRES. You can see that the wavelength range covered by CRIRES+ in one exposure is far greater.
The instrument was installed at the telescope in 2020 and saw first light in February. Commissioning took place during 2021 and the instrument was offered to the community later that year.
CRIRES+ allows astronomers to improve our understanding of stellar magnetic fields, detect planets in the habitable zone of low-mass stars, characterize atmospheres of exoplanets, and more!
If you want to know more about CRIRES+: Check out the instrument page at ESO.
