SPECULOOS

Telescope ensemble at the Paranal Observatory in Chile

SPECULOOS ( Apronym for S earch for habitable P Lanet EC lipsing UL tra c OO l S tars ) is a project led by the University of Liege , the Earth-like exoplanets around cool stars of spectral type M7 to brown dwarfs to track down. It builds on the experience with TRAPPIST .

Telescopes

In the final stage, the project will have two ensembles of four mirror telescopes each. These telescopes are remotely controlled, follow the Ritchey-Chrétien design with a primary mirror 1 meter in diameter , and have cameras with high sensitivity in the near infrared .

• The SPECULOOS SSO ensemble is located in the southern hemisphere on the premises of the Paranal Observatory in Chile and began its scientific operation in January 2019. The telescopes were named after four large moons of Jupiter : Io , Europa , Ganymede and Callisto .

• The construction of the ensemble SPECULOOS SNO is planned for the northern hemisphere on the Teide ( Tenerife ). The first "Artémis" telescope went into operation there on June 20, 2019, with MIT as the main financier .

Trivia

The project name alludes to the Flemish name speculoos for Spekulatius on.

Web links

Commons : SPECULOOS  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ SPECULOOS. University of Liège , accessed December 30, 2018 (French, project homepage). 
2. ↑ Laetitia Delrez et al .: SPECULOOS: a network of robotic telescopes to hunt for terrestrial planets around the nearest ultracool dwarfs. ResearchGate , June 2018, accessed December 30, 2018 (preprint). 
3. ↑ First Light for SPECULOOS. European Southern Observatory , December 5, 2018, accessed December 30, 2018 . 
4. ↑ L'Observatoire SPECULOOS North. University of Liège, accessed December 30, 2018 (French). 
5. ↑ Le MIT, l'ULiège et l'IAC inaugurent le télescope Artémis. University of Liège, June 20, 2019, accessed November 28, 2019 .