A new project that searches for transitioning exoplanets - exoplanets that pass their parent star and create a light dimming that can be observed by sensitive instruments - has seen first light, according to a press release from European Southern Observatory (ESO).
The Next-Generation Transit Survey (NGTS) has begun in ESO's Paranal Observatory in northern Chile. The survey's telescopes will concentrate on planets smaller than Neptune but two and eight times that diameter of Earth.
NGTS is comprised of 12 telescopes with apertures of 20 centimeters. A U.K., Swiss and German syndicate built the new facility.
"We needed a site where there were many clear nights and the air was clear and dry so that we could make very accurate measurements as often as possible - Paranal was the best choice by far," said one of the project leads Don Pollacco of the University of Warwick in the U.K.
NGTS will monitor the brightness of thousands of stars - all comparatively brighter than most - continuously and robotically. The one-part-in-a-thousand level of accuracy that can be realized by NGTS has never been achieved by a ground-based wide-field instrument, according to ESO.
Once subtle transitions are discovered by the smaller telescopes, other larger telescopes will be employed, such as the ESO Very Large Telescope. One goal of NGST is to measure the mass of planets which can then be converted into measures of densities. Density is a major clue when trying to determine composition of a planet, which translates into "habitability."
"We are excited to begin our search for small planets around nearby stars," said another project lead Peter Wheatley. "The NGTS discoveries, and follow-up observations by telescopes on the ground and in space, will be important steps in our quest to study the atmospheres and composition of small planets such as the Earth."
According to ESO, the NGTS Consortium includes the University of Warwick, U.K., the Queen's University of Belfast, U.K., the University of Leicester, U.K., the University of Cambridge, U.K., Geneva University in Switzerland and DLR Berlin in Germany.
