Abstract:

Current high-precision spectrographs with 1m/s radial velocity precision do not allow to detect an Earth-like planet in the habitable zone of a Sun-like star. The detection of rocky planet around low-mass M stars are, however, feasible with such spectrographs. M stars are therefore seen as a short-cut towards the detection of habitable planets. CARMENES was the first dedicated instrument for this purpose. While CARMENES is performing a survey monitoring about 300 M stars, RedDots aims at a very intensive monitoring of selected M star planet host stars. I will give an overview of the CARMENES instrument and its performance and present some of the highlight results from the two complementary projects.