The newly commissioned 2.4-meter Automated Planet Finding telescope at the Lick Observatory will be used to carry out a search for planets around other stars. This remotely operated telescope/spectrograph were designed for stability and high cadence sampling which will enable radial velocity precisions well below the current 1 m/s upper limit. Exoplanets with masses down to 2MEarth in the habitable zones of nearby K-type stars and 10MEarth planets at Earth-like distances around sun-like stars will be detectable. The search will center on 120 F, G, and K-type stars with brightnesses greater than 6.5 magnitudes in a V filter. Of particular importance is the survey's sensitivity to low mass (rocky) planets in small orbits whose statistics and properties are important in understanding the formation of planetary systems. The project will be carried out by the PI and collaborators along with undergraduate and graduate students at San Francisco State who will have opportunities to work on exoplanets projects and present these results at talks and in journals.
