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Scientific motivations for HARPS
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The improvement in the precision of radial-velocity measurements from 5-10m/s down to 1m/s
will largely contribute to remove biases in the detection of extra-solar planets. As the amplitude
of the radial-velocity variations scales with the mass of the planetary companion, a 1m/s precision
will allow the detection of very light "giant" planets (a few tenths of Saturn, although terrestrial
planets will stay beyond reach). This is especially important in the case of planetary systems for
which the influences of several companions add up blurring the observed signal for instruments with
inadequate resolution.
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