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Next Generation Transit Survey
The Next-Generation Transit Survey (NGTS) is a ground-based robotic search for exoplanets. The facility is located at Paranal Observatory in the Atacama desert in northern Chile, about 2 km from ESO's Very Large Telescope and 0.5 km from the VISTA Survey Telescope. Science operations began in early 2015. The astronomical survey is managed by a consortium of seven European universities and other academic institutions from Chile, Germany, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Prototypes of the array were tested in 2009 and 2010 on La Palma, and from 2012 to 2014 at Geneva Observatory. The aim of NGTS is to discover super-Earths and exo-Neptunes transiting relatively bright and nearby stars with an apparent magnitude of up to 13. The survey uses transit photometry, which precisely measures the dimming of a star to detect the presence of a planet when it crosses in front of it. NGTS consists of an array of twelve commercial 0.2-metre telescopes ( f/2.8), each equipped ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Very Large Telescope
The Very Large Telescope (VLT) is a telescope facility operated by the European Southern Observatory on Cerro Paranal in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile. It consists of four individual telescopes, each with a primary mirror 8.2 m across, which are generally used separately but can be used together to achieve very high angular resolution. The four separate optical telescopes are known as ''Antu'', ''Kueyen'', ''Melipal'', and ''Yepun'', which are all words for astronomical objects in the Mapuche language. The telescopes form an array complemented by four movable Auxiliary Telescopes (ATs) of 1.8 m aperture. The VLT operates at visible light, visible and infrared wavelengths. Each individual telescope can detect objects roughly four billion times fainter than can be detected with the naked eye, and when all the telescopes are combined, the facility can achieve an angular resolution of about 0.002 arcsecond. In single telescope mode of operation angular resolution is ab ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
SuperWASP
WASP or Wide Angle Search for Planets is an international consortium of several academic organisations performing an ultra-wide angle search for exoplanets using transit photometry. The array of robotic telescopes aims to survey the entire sky, simultaneously monitoring many thousands of stars at an apparent visual magnitude from about 7 to 13. WASP is the detection program composed of the Isaac Newton Group, IAC and six universities from the United Kingdom. The two continuously operating, robotic observatories cover the Northern and Southern Hemisphere, respectively. SuperWASP-North is at Roque de los Muchachos Observatory on the mountain of that name which dominates La Palma in the Canary Islands. WASP-South is at the South African Astronomical Observatory, Sutherland in the arid Roggeveld Mountains of South Africa. These use eight wide-angle cameras that simultaneously monitor the sky for planetary transit events and allow the monitoring of millions of stars simultaneousl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
HATNet Project
The Hungarian Automated Telescope Network (HATNet) project is a network of six small fully automated "HAT" telescopes. The scientific goal of the project is to detect and characterize extrasolar planets using the transit method. This network is used also to find and follow bright variable stars. The network is maintained by the Center for Astrophysics Harvard & Smithsonian. The HAT acronym stands for ''Hungarian-made Automated Telescope'', because it was developed by a small group of Hungarians who met through the Hungarian Astronomical Association. The project started in 1999 and has been fully operational since May 2001. Equipment The prototype instrument, HAT-1 was built from a 180 mm focal length and 65 mm aperture Nikon telephoto lens and a Kodak KAF-0401E chip of 512 × 768, 9 μm pixels. The test period was from 2000 to 2001 at the Konkoly Observatory in Budapest. HAT-1 was transported from Budapest to the Steward Observatory, Kitt Peak, Arizona, USA, in J ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Next-Generation Transit Survey (NGTS) At Paranal - Vid
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the most frequently used word in the English language; studies and analyses of texts have found it to account for seven percent of all printed English-language words. It is derived from gendered articles in Old English which combined in Middle English and now has a single form used with pronouns of any gender. The word can be used with both singular and plural nouns, and with a noun that starts with any letter. This is different from many other languages, which have different forms of the definite article for different genders or numbers. Pronunciation In most dialects, "the" is pronounced as (with the voiced dental fricative followed by a schwa) when followed by a consonant sound, and as (homophone of pronoun ''thee'') when followed by a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gas Giant
A gas giant is a giant planet composed mainly of hydrogen and helium. Gas giants are also called failed stars because they contain the same basic elements as a star. Jupiter and Saturn are the gas giants of the Solar System. The term "gas giant" was originally synonymous with "giant planet". However, in the 1990s, it became known that Uranus and Neptune are really a distinct class of giant planets, being composed mainly of heavier volatile substances (which are referred to as "ices"). For this reason, Uranus and Neptune are now often classified in the separate category of ice giants. Jupiter and Saturn consist mostly of hydrogen and helium, with heavier elements making up between 3 and 13 percent of their mass.The Interior of Jupiter, Guillot et al., in ''Jupiter: The Planet, Satellites and Magnetosphere'', Bagenal et al., editors, Cambridge University Press, 2004 They are thought to consist of an outer layer of compressed molecular hydrogen surrounding a layer of liquid metallic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Doppler Spectroscopy
Doppler spectroscopy (also known as the radial-velocity method, or colloquially, the wobble method) is an indirect method for finding extrasolar planets and brown dwarfs from radial-velocity measurements via observation of Doppler shifts in the spectrum of the planet's parent star. 1,018 extrasolar planets (about 19.5% of the total) have been discovered using Doppler spectroscopy, as of November 2022. History Otto Struve proposed in 1952 the use of powerful spectrographs to detect distant planets. He described how a very large planet, as large as Jupiter, for example, would cause its parent star to wobble slightly as the two objects orbit around their center of mass. He predicted that the small Doppler shifts to the light emitted by the star, caused by its continuously varying radial velocity, would be detectable by the most sensitive spectrographs as tiny redshifts and blueshifts in the star's emission. However, the technology of the time produced radial-velocity meas ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
VLT-SPHERE
Spectro-Polarimetric High-contrast Exoplanet REsearch (VLT-SPHERE) is an adaptive optics system and coronagraphic facility at the Very Large Telescope (VLT). It provides direct imaging as well as spectroscopic and polarimetric characterization of exoplanet systems. The instrument operates in the visible and near infrared, achieving, albeit over a limited field of view, superior image quality and contrast for bright targets. Results from SPHERE complement those from other planet finder projects which include HARPS, CoRoT, and the Kepler Mission. The instrument was installed on Unit Telescope "Melipal" (UT3) and achieved first light in June, 2014. At the time of installation, it was the latest of a series of second generation VLT-instruments such as X-shooter, KMOS and MUSE. Science goals Direct imaging of exoplanets is extremely challenging: # The brightness contrast between the planet and its host star typically ranges from 10−6 for hot young giant planets emitting sign ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
ESPRESSO
Espresso (, ) is a coffee-brewing method of Italian origin, in which a small amount of nearly boiling water (about ) is forced under of pressure through finely-ground coffee beans. Espresso can be made with a wide variety of coffee beans and roast degrees. Espresso is the most common way of making coffee in southern Europe, especially in Italy, France, Spain, and Portugal. It is also popular in Switzerland, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Greece, South Africa, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Espresso is generally thicker than coffee brewed by other methods, with a viscosity similar to that of warm honey. This is due to the higher concentration of suspended and dissolved solids, and the ''crema'' on top (a foam with a creamy consistency). As a result of the pressurized brewing process, the flavors and chemicals in a typical cup of espresso are very concentrated. Espresso has more caffeine per unit volume than most coffee be ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
HARPS
The High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS) is a high-precision echelle planet-finding spectrograph installed in 2002 on the ESO's 3.6m telescope at La Silla Observatory in Chile. The first light was achieved in February 2003. HARPS has discovered over 130 exoplanets to date, with the first one in 2004, making it the most successful planet finder behind the Kepler space observatory. It is a second-generation radial-velocity spectrograph, based on experience with the ELODIE and CORALIE instruments. Characteristics The HARPS can attain a precision of 0.97 m/s (3.5 km/h), making it one of only two instruments worldwide with such accuracy. This is due to a design in which the target star and a reference spectrum from a thorium lamp are observed simultaneously using two identical optic fibre feeds, and to careful attention to mechanical stability: the instrument sits in a vacuum vessel which is temperature-controlled to within 0.01 kelvins. The precision ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
PLATO (spacecraft)
PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations of stars (PLATO) is a space telescope under development by the European Space Agency for launch in 2026. The mission goals are to search for planetary transits across up to one million stars, and to discover and characterize rocky extrasolar planets around yellow dwarf stars (like the Sun), subgiant stars, and red dwarf stars. The emphasis of the mission is on Earth-like planets in the habitable zone around Sun-like stars where water can exist in a liquid state. It is the third medium-class mission in ESA's Cosmic Vision programme and is named after the influential Greek philosopher Plato. A secondary objective of the mission is to study stellar oscillations or seismic activity in stars to measure stellar masses and evolution and enable the precise characterization of the planet host star, including its age. History PLATO was first proposed in 2007 to the European Space Agency (ESA) by a team of scientists in response to the call for ESA's ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gaia (spacecraft)
''Gaia'' is a space observatory of the European Space Agency (ESA), launched in 2013 and expected to operate until 2025. The spacecraft is designed for astrometry: measuring the positions, distances and motions of stars with unprecedented precision. The mission aims to construct by far the largest and most precise 3D space catalog ever made, totalling approximately 1 billion astronomical objects, mainly stars, but also planets, comets, asteroids and quasars, among others. To study the precise position and motion of its target objects, the spacecraft monitored each of them about 70 times over the five years of the nominal mission (2014–2019), and continues to do so during its extension. The spacecraft has enough micro-propulsion fuel to operate until about November 2024. As its detectors are not degrading as fast as initially expected, the mission could therefore be extended. ''Gaia'' targets objects brighter than magnitude 20 in a broad photometric band that covers the e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
TESS
Tess or TESS may refer to: Music * Tess (band), a Spanish pop band active from 2000 to 2005 * TESS (musician), a UK musician Film and theatre * ''Tess'' (1979 film), a 1979 film adaptation of '' Tess of the d'Urbervilles'' * ''Tess'' (2016 film), a South African production * ''Tess'' (play), a stage adaptation of ''Tess of the d'Urbervilles'' featuring Tanya Franks Science and technology * Trademark Electronic Search System, a service of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office * Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, a space telescope designed to search for extra-solar planets * Ethinylestradiol/cyproterone acetate, a birth control pill * Typhoon Tess (other) Other uses * Tess (given name) Tess is a feminine given name, typically a diminutive form of Theresa or Tessa. People * Tess Amorim (born 1994), Brazilian actress * Tess Broussard (born 1972), American model and actress * Tess Daly (born 1969), British television presenter ... * Nikolay Tess (1921–2006), m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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