QUB Scientists In 'Groundbreaking' Astrophysics Project

Queen's University Scientists are partnering with astrophysicists across Europe on a new project to discover new planets.

The Next-Generation Transit Survey (NGTS) has achieved first light at the European Southern Observatory’s (ESO) Paranal Observatory in Chile, and will reach a level of accuracy never before attained under observatory conditions.

The highly sensitive telescopes – parts of which have been manufactured in Belfast – will be tasked with finding 'transiting exoplanets', which are planets that pass in front of their parent star and produce a small, periodic dimming of that star’s light.

NGTS is to focus on discovering Neptune-sized and smaller planets that orbit relatively nearby bright stars.

Designed to operate automatically, the Paranal site will continuously monitor the brightness of hundreds of thousands of stars in the southern skies. They are expected to reach a level of accuracy that has never before been attained with a ground-based, wide field survey instrument.

One of those involved, Dr Christopher Watson from the Astrophysics Research Centre at Queen’s University Belfast, said: "This is a truly exciting time and a major coup for Queen’s. NGTS will not only discover a whole host of new planets, including 'super-Earths' a little larger than our own planet, but some of these will be amongst the best planets with which to perform more detailed investigations. Are we looking at a rocky, terrestrial-like planet? What are their atmospheres like? It was not so long ago that answering such questions was unthinkable - NGTS discoveries will keep us occupied for many years."

(IT/MH)