The Geneva Extrasolar Planet Search is a variety of observational programs run by the Geneva Observatory at Versoix, a small town near

Geneva Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaki ...

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

. The programs are executed by M. Mayor, D. Naef, F. Pepe, D. Queloz, N.C. Santos, and S. Udry using several telescopes and instruments in the Northern and Southern Hemisphere and have resulted in the discovery of numerous

extrasolar planets An exoplanet or extrasolar planet is a planet outside the Solar System. The first possible evidence of an exoplanet was noted in 1917 but was not recognized as such. The first confirmation of detection occurred in 1992. A different planet, init ...

, including

51 Pegasi b 51 Pegasi b, officially named Dimidium , and formerly unofficially dubbed Bellerophon , is an extrasolar planet approximately away in the constellation of Pegasus. It was the first exoplanet to be discovered orbiting a main-sequence star, the S ...

, the first ever confirmed exoplanet orbiting a

main-sequence In astronomy, the main sequence is a continuous and distinctive band of stars that appears on plots of stellar color versus brightness. These color-magnitude plots are known as Hertzsprung–Russell diagrams after their co-developers, Ejnar Hert ...

star. Programs originated at Geneva are generally conducted in collaboration with several other academic institutions from Belgium, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom. These programs search for exoplanets in various locations using different instruments. These include the

Haute-Provence Observatory The Haute-Provence Observatory (OHP, french: Observatoire de Haute-Provence) is an astronomical observatory in the southeast of France, about 90 km east of Avignon and 100 km north of Marseille. It was established in 1937 as a national ...

in France, the TRAPPIST and the Euler Telescope, both located at La Silla Observatory in Chile, as well as the M dwarf programs. Most recent projects involve the

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. H ...

spectrograph An optical spectrometer (spectrophotometer, spectrograph or spectroscope) is an instrument used to measure properties of light over a specific portion of the electromagnetic spectrum, typically used in spectroscopic analysis to identify mate ...

HARPS-N HARPS-N, the ''High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher for the Northern hemisphere'' is a high-precision radial-velocity spectrograph, installed at the Italian Telescopio Nazionale Galileo, a 3.58-metre telescope located at the Roque de los ...

at the island of La Palma, and the

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 ...

located at the

Paranal Observatory Paranal Observatory is an astronomical observatory operated by the European Southern Observatory (ESO). It is located in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile on Cerro Paranal at altitude, south of Antofagasta. By total light-collecting area, it ...

, northern Chile. The Integral Science Data Centre is located at Ecogia, which also belongs to the town of Versoix. The centre is linked to the Geneva Observatory and deals with the processing of the data provided by the satellite

INTEGRAL In mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented i ...

of the

European Space Agency , owners = , headquarters = Paris, Île-de-France, France , coordinates = , spaceport = Guiana Space Centre , seal = File:ESA emblem seal.png , seal_size = 130px , image = Views in the Main Control Room (1205 ...

.''Observatory of Geneva'', University of Geneva, May 7, 2007, On the two sites of Sauverny and Ecogia, a group of approximately 143 people are employed, including scientists, PhD candidates, students, technical staff (computer and electronics specialists, mechanics), as well as administrative staff.

Extrasolar planet search surveys

*The ELODIE Northern Extrasolar Planet Search based at the

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

. *The

CORALIE Coralie is a French feminine name meaning "coral", derived from the Latin word ''coralium''.Also spelt ''corallum'', ''corallium'' or ''curalium'', cf.br>Whitaker's Words/ref> It was the eighth most popular name for baby girls in Quebec in 2007. N ...

Survey for Southern Extra-solar Planets based at the La Silla Observatory in

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

References

Exoplanet search projects Astronomical surveys Versoix {{astrobiology-stub

Extrasolar planet search surveys

See also

References