Exoplanet:n. a planet that orbits a star outside the solar system.
PLANET SEARCH PROJECTS
Current planet count: 309
Click on the interactive map below to browse the planet finding centers around the world.
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Description: UVES is a two-arm crossdispersed echelle spectrograph covering the wavelength range 300 - 500 nm (blue) and 420 - 1100 nm (red).
Status: Ongoing
Location: Paranal Observatory, Atacama, Chile
ESO Coude Echelle Spectrometer (CES) Description: ESO's highest resolution spectrograph providing a resolving power of up to 235,000 in the 346 - 1028 nm region. Status: Ongoing Location: La Silla Observatory, Chile
Description: The Anglo-Australian Planet Search is a long-term program being carried out on the 3.9m Anglo-Australian Telescope to search for giant planets around 200 nearby Solar-type stars.
Hobby-Eberly Telescope Description: Designed to gather a very large amount of light, specifically for spectroscopy, at low cost. Status: Ongoing Location: Fort Davis, Texas
McDonald Observatory Description: The Observatory is equipped with a wide range of state-of-the-art instrumentation for imaging and spectroscopy in the optical and infrared, and operates one of the first and most productive lunar ranging stations. Status: Ongoing Location: Fort Davis, Texas
Absolute Astronomical Accelerometry (Emilie Spectrograph) Description: Optimize the capacities of a spectrograph to obtain the best possible measurement of variation radial speed. Status: Ongoing Location: Observatoire de Haute-Provence, France
Advanced Fiber-Optic Echelle (AFOE) spectrometer Description: To provide the required precision and stability to detect the wobble induced on the star by the presence of a planet. Status: Ongoing Location: Whipple Observatory, Tucson, Arizona (Being moved to Mt. Wilson, California)
Exoplanet Tracker Description: Research activities are mainly concentrated on developing and applying new instrument techniques and instruments for new astronomical observations with ground-based and space-based telescopes. Status: Ongoing Location: Pennsylvania State University
Fringing Spectrometer for Planet Search Description: Radial velocity search using a spectrally dispersed interferometer. Status: Under development Location: University of California, Berkeley
Magellan 6.5 m Telescopes Description:A collaboration between the Observatories of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, University of Arizona, Harvard University, University of Michigan, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology to construct two 6.5 Meter optical telescopes in the southern hemisphere. Status: Ongoing Location: Las Campanas Observatory, Chile
M-Dwarfs Program, Geneva Planet Search Description: Precise mass determination by combining visual and spectroscopic data. Status: Ongoing Location: Observatoire de Haute-Provence, France
Spectrashift.com Description: Amateur radial velocity studies. Status: Ongoing Location: Various
TNG High Resolution Spectrograph (SARG) Description: The SARG Exoplanets Search is the Italian project aimed in finding and studying extra solar planets orbiting around wide binaries components using for the Radial Velocity measurements with iodine absorption cells. Status: Ongoing Location: Teramo Astronomical Observatory, Italy
Arizona Search for Planets (ASP) Description: ASP uses the photometric method (or the occultation/transit method) with very high precision. Status: Ongoing Location: Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO), Arizona
Berlin Exoplanet Search Telescope (BEST) Description: BEST is a ground-based photometric observation system to detect transit events of Jupiter-sized objects. Status: Ongoing Location: Karl-Schwarzschild-Observatorium, Germany
Hungarian Automated Telescope Network (HAT Network) Description: HATNet (HAT Network) is a development-stage system of almost identical, completely automated, small aperture and wide-field, "digital camera" (CCD) equipped telescopes (HATs). Status: Concluded Location: Smithsonian Astophysical Observatory's Whipple Observatory (FLWO), Arizona
The Monitoring Network of Telescopes (MONET) Description: Robotic telescopes are able to perform astronomical observations unattended night after night. Status: Scheduled to begin in ???? Location: University of Göttingen's Observatory, Göttingen, Germany
Permanent All Sky Survey (PASS) Description: PASS is intended to perform a permanent all-sky survey, obtaining time-series photometry from all bright stars that are visible in one or more observing locations, with the major aim to detect all giant planets transiting bright stars. Status: Unknown Location: Teide Observatory, Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain
Stellar Astrophysics & Research on Exoplanets (STARE) Description: STARE uses precise time-series photometry to search for extrasolar giant planets transiting their parent stars. Status: Ongoing Location: Teide Observatory, Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain
STELLA Description: A long-term project for observing and monitoring activity tracers on cool stars with two robotic telescopes. Status: Scheduled to begin in ???? Location: Teide Observatory, Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain
SuperWASP (Wide Angle Search for Planets) Description: SuperWASP aims to photometrically survey large numbers of stars in the magnitude range ~7 to 13 to better than 1~percent precision over a wide area of sky. Status: Scheduled to begin in ???? Location: La Palma, Canary Islands, Spain
Tennessee Automatic Photoelectric Telescope Description:The 0.80m APT is dedicated to long-term photometric monitoring of approximately 75 solar-duplicate stars. Status: Ongoing Location: Tennessee State University, Smithsonian Astrophysics Observatory
Transits of Extrasolar Planets (TEP) Network Description: The major effort of TEP is the observation of the eclipsing binary star CM-Draconis for signs of the presence of planets using the transit method. Status: Concluded Locations: Instituto De Astrofísica, Canary Islands, Spain
Observatoire de Haute-Provence, France
Jacobus Kapteyn Telescope, La Palma, Canary Islands, Spain
Lick Observatory, Santa Cruz, California<
Wise Observatory, Tel Aviv, Israel
Transitsearch.org Description: To Coordinate and direct a cooperative observational effort which will allow experienced amateur astronomers and small college observatories to discover transiting extrasolar planets. Status: Ongoing Location: Nationwide
Vulcain Camera Project Description: Photometric search for extrasolar planets. Status: Ongoing Location: Lick Observatory, Tycho Brahe Peak, California
Vulcain South (Antarctic Planet Finder) Description: Vulcan South is an extension of the Vulcan Camera Project to the South Pole. Status: Ongoing Location: South Pole, Antarctica
Experience pour la Recherche d'Objets Sombres (EROS I & II) Description: The search and the study of dark stellar bodies, so-called "brown dwarfs" or "MACHOs" which belong gravitationally to our Galaxy. Status: EROS I Concluded
EROS II Concluded Location: La Silla Observatory, Chile
MACHO Description: To test the hypothesis that a significant fraction of the dark matter in the halo of the Milky Way is made up of objects like brown dwarfs or planets. Status: Concluded Location: Mount Stromlo Observatory, Canberra, Australia
Microlensing Observations in Astrophysics (MOA) Description: Observations on dark matter, extrasolar planets and stellar atmospheres using the gravitational microlensing technique. Status: Ongoing Location: Mt John Observatory in New Zealand
Microlensing Planet Search Project (MPS) Description: Searching for evidence of extrasolar planets using the gravitational microlensing technique. Status: Ongoing Locations: Mount Stromlo Observatory, Canberra, Australia
Boyden Observatory, Bloemfontein in South Africa
Probing Lensing Anomalies NETwork (PLANET) Description: The primary goal of PLANET's multi-band, rapidly-sampled photometry is the study of microlensing anomalies. Status: Ongoing Locations: La Silla Observatory, Chile
South African Astronomical Observatory, Sutherland, South Africa
Perth Telescope, Bickley, Australia
Hobart Telescope, Canopus Observatory of the
University of Tasmania, Australia
University of St. Andrews Planet Search (UStAPS) Description: Investigating Microlensing, Transits, and Doppler Tomography techniques with the goal of discovering and characterizing extra-solar planets. Status: Ongoing Location: Center for Astrophysics and Space Science, University of California
Large Binocular Telescope Interferometer Description: Instrument that will combine light from the two 8-meter primary mirrors on the Large Binocular Telescope to perform nulling interferometry. The instrument will directly image zodiacal dust disks and gas giant planets around nearby stars. Status: Scheduled to begin in ???? Location: Mt. Graham, Arizona
Astronomical Nulling Interferometer (ANI) Description: To demonstrate the cancellation of starlight, exploring the limiting factors, and image dim circumstellar material which would be otherwise difficult to study. Status: Concluded Location: Multiple Mirror Telescope Observatory, Tucson, Arizona
Bracewell Infrared Nulling Cryostat (BLINC) Description: An interferometer designed to suppress starlight in order to search circumstellar environments of nearby stars for dust disks and planets. Status: Scheduled to begin in ???? Location: Multiple Mirror Telescope Observatory, Tucson, Arizona
Carlina Description: The Carlina project was created for the preparation of future hypertelescopes on the ground and in space. The goal of these instruments is to resolve images of stars and their planets. Status: Scheduled to begin in ???? Location: Observatoire de Haute-Provence, France
Characterizing Extrasolar planets by Opto-infrared Polarimetry and Spectroscopy (CHEOPS) Description: The CHEOPS project aims at constructing a second generation instrument for one of European Space Agency's "Very Large Telescope Interferometer" for direct detection of extrasolar giant planets. Status: Scheduled to begin in ???? Location: Calar Alto Observatory, Andalucía, Spain
Kiloparsec Explorer for Optical Planet Search (KEOPS) Description: Co-phased primary telescopes: collecting surface 60m2 equivalent to Keck. Instantaneuous imaging by Fourier Synthesis, 530 interferometric simultaneous measures. Status: Scheduled to begin in 2015 Location: Antarctica
The Lyot Project Description: The Lyot Project is a three-year instrumentation effort involving the construction of the world's first optimized, diffraction-limited stellar coronagraph Status: Scheduled to begin in ???? Location: US Air Force Advanced Electro Optical System Telescope Facility, Maui
Mid-InfraRed Large-well Imager (MIRLIN) Description: Studies of the temperature characteristics of the atmospheres of Jupiter and Saturn, investigations of how stars and planetary systems form and evolve, and how galaxies originate. Status: Ongoing Location: Palomar Observatory, California
Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) Description: SOFIA is a Boeing 747SP aircraft modified by L-3 Communications Integrated Systems to accommodate a 2.5 meter reflecting telescope. SOFIA will study solar system formation, among other science objectives. Location: NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California
Tennessee Automated Photoelectric Telescopes Description: Tennesssee State University operates seven automatic photoelectric telescopes (APTs) and an automatic spectroscopic telescope (AST) located at the Fairborn Observatory in Southern Arizona. Status: Ongoing Location: Fairborn Observatory, Patagonia, Arizona
Keck Interferometer Description: Combines light from the twin Keck telescopes to detect planets in other solar systems. Status: Ongoing Location: W.M. Keck Observatory, Mauna Kea, Hawaii
Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) Description: VLTI will provide both a high sensitivity as well as milli-arcsec angular resolution provided by baselines of up to 200m length. Status: Scheduled to begin in ???? Location: Paranal Observatory, Atacama, Chile
Palomar Testbed Interferometer Description: A near-IR, long-baseline stellar interferometer located at Palomar Observatory in north San Diego County. It was developed primarily to demonstrate the utility of ground-based differential astrometry in the search for planets around nearby stars, and to develop key technologies for the Keck Interferometer and space-based missions. Status: Ongoing Location: Palomar Observatory, California
Single Telescope Extrasolar Planet Survey (STEPS) Description: STEPS is a project to detect extrasolar planets with a high-precision astrometry. Status: Scheduled to begin in ???? Location: Palomar Observatory, California
Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) Description: Millimeter and sub-millimeter wavelengths, 850 microns; protoplanetary disks. Status: Scheduled to begin in ???? Location: Llano de Chajnantor, Chile
EXo-Planetary Observational Research Team (EXPORT) Description: EXPORT is a consortium of European astronomers using the telescopes on La Palma and Tenerife to study extrasolar planets, as well as the formation and evolution of protoplanetary systems. Status: Ongoing Location: La Palma Observatory, Canary Islands
Low Frequency Array (LOFAR) Description: More thoroughly assess the emission processes and better choose other candidates for detection of similar planetary systems. Status: Scheduled to begin in 2006 Location: Astron, Netherlands Foundation for Research in Astronomy
Pulsar Planet Detection Description: Detection of planets through pulsar timing. Status: Ongoing Location: Pennsylvania State University
Search for Trojan Extrasolar Planets Description: Project focused on searching for planets in binary star systems. Status: Ongoing Location: Appalachian State University's Dark Sky Observatory, North Carolina
COnvection ROtation and planetary Transits (COROT) Description: The COROT-satellite uses highly accurate photometry in the optical range to achieve two scientific goals: search for extrasolar planets and measure the pulsation of stars to study their interior. Status: Scheduled to launch in 2006 Facility: European Space Agency
Kepler Description: The Kepler Mission is specifically designed to survey the extended solar neighborhood to detect and characterize hundreds of terrestrial and larger planets in or near the habitable zone using the "transit" method. Status: Scheduled to launch in 2007 Facility: NASA/JPL
Microvariability and Oscillations of STars (MOST) Description: MOST is a suitcase-sized microsatellite designed to probe stars and extrasolar planets by measuring tiny light variations undetectable from Earth. Status: Launched in 2003 Facility: Canadian Space Agency
BOSS (Big Occulting Steerable Satellite) Description: Designed to provide improved resolution of closely spaced objects with comparable brightnesses and to facilitate separation of dim objects from nearby bright objects. Status: Scheduled to launch in ???? Facility: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio
Darwin (ESA) Description: Darwin is a flotilla of eight spacecraft that will search for Earth-like planets and analyze their atmospheres for the chemical signature of life. Status: Under development. Facility: European Space Agency
James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Description: By investigating the distribution of stellar masses found in star forming clusters as a function of physical environment, JWST will help to address the question: what fixes the mass of a forming star? Status: Scheduled for launch within the next decade Facility: NASA/Goddard
Terrestrial Planet Finder Description: Terrestrial Planet Finder (TPF) is a suite of two complementary observatories that will study all aspects of planets outside our solar system: from their formation and development in disks of dust and gas around newly forming stars to the presence and features of those planets orbiting the nearest stars. Status: First observatory scheduled to launch in 2014 Facility: NASA/JPL
Spitzer Space Telescope (Formally SIRTF) Description: The Spitzer Space Telescope is a space-borne, cryogenically-cooled infrared observatory capable of studying objects ranging from our Solar System to the distant reaches of the Universe. Status: Ongoing Facility: NASA/JPL
Herschel Space Observatory Description: Herschel is designed to observe the 'cool universe'; it has the potential of discovering the earliest epoch proto-galaxies, revealing cosmologically evolving AGN/starburst symbiosis, and unravelling the mechanisms governing the formation of stars and planetary systems, such as our own. Status: In development. Facility: European Space Agency
Hypertelescope projects Description: Pursuing work initiated in the 1970's in optical stellar interferometry , the group tackles several complementary projects for "hypertelescopes" on Earth and in space. Status: Ongoing Facility: Observatoire de Haute-Provence, France
Hubble Space Telescope Astrometry Description: Using the Fine Guidance Sensors aboard Hubble Space Telescope to measure star positions and study binary stars unresolvable using ground-based techniques. Status: Ongoing Facility: University of Texas at Austin, Texas, USA
GAIA Description: Simultaneously and systematically determine planetary frequency and distribution of orbital parameters for the stellar mix in the Solar neighborhood. Status: Scheduled for launch in 2008 Facility: European Space Agency