Ground based planet hunter coming on line at ESO

[jmorgan]

OK, this is not the first but still. Find something interesting and chuck the big brother at the task.


http://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1502/

ESO said:

The Next-Generation Transit Survey (NGTS) has achieved first light at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in northern Chile. This project will search for transiting exoplanets — planets that pass in front of their parent star and hence produce a slight dimming of the star’s light that can be detected by sensitive instruments. The telescopes will focus on discovering Neptune-sized and smaller planets, with diameters between two and eight times that of Earth.

New shiny looking for planets. I know there are several already doing so using the same method but the more the merrier.

http://www.ngtransits.org/science.shtml

And one tantalising bit, maybe the chance to get an idea of the planets atmosphere in better detail (same method as others but this must add to the knowledge).