CARMENES: focusing on small planets around nearby M dwarfs

 CARMENES is a radial-velocity (RV) survey for exoplanets around nearby M dwarf stars. Using

a high-resolution dual-channel spectrograph, it provides M-star RV measurements with a precision

down to ~1 m/s. In seven years of surveying >300 nearby M-dwarfs, we have detected >30 new

planets, including habitable-zone Earth-mass planets (Teegarden’s Star b&c) and planets that

challenge planet-formation models (GJ 3512 b). Some of the new planets are amenable for

characterization by direct-imaging and astrometric instruments. CARMENES was also used to

estimate the masses of ~30 transiting planets around nearby M dwarfs, including AU Mic b&c.

CARMENES’ unique design allows addressing additional questions related to M dwarfs and closein

planets, such as the spectroscopic manifestation of photospheric activity and rotation, magnetic

field strength of active stars, and the atmospheric composition of hot massive planets. In the talk,

I will give an overview of the main results from CARMENES and an outlook to its future