SPECULOOS

SPECULOOS (Search for habitable Planets EClipsing ULtra-cOOl Stars) is a project in development that will consist of four Ritchey–Chrétien telescopes of 1-metre primary aperture, made by ASTELCO. Each telescope will be equipped with a NTM-1000 robotic mount, that will be installed at the Paranal Observatory in Chile to search for Earth-sized exoplanets around 1000 ultra-cool stars and brown dwarfs. 

The system comprises four telescopes called Europa, Io, Callisto, and Ganymede. The first telescope (Europa) saw its first light in April 2017. The second telescope (Io) began operations in October 2017. The robotic observations of each of the four telescopes will be controlled by the program ACP Expert. There is a sister project in the northern hemisphere.Artemis is the first telescope for SPECULOOS - North it began operations on June 20th, 2019. As of December 2019, all SPECULOOS - South telescopes are operational.

Wavelength
The four 1 m-diameter telescopes will be equipped with cameras sensitive in the near-infrared, the wavelength range in which ultra-cool stars and brown dwarfs emit most of their light.

Collaboration
SPECULOOS involves scientists from the University of Liège (Belgium), the Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge (UK), MIT, Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias and the King Abdulaziz University (Saudi Arabia), under the leadership of Michaël Gillon of the University of Liège. The European Southern Observatory (ESO) supports and hosts SPECULOOS at the Paranal Observatory.

See also
TRAPPIST another project of the University of Liège to search for exoplanets.

Introducing Artemis — MIT-EAPS' newest addition to the hunt for exoplanets

References

Category:Optical telescopes
Category:Astronomical surveys
Category:Exoplanet search projects
Category:Robotic telescopes