Gallery: The Little Telescope That Just Discovered Three Exoplanets and One-Upped Kepler
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A new robotic telescope had first light at ESO’s La Silla Observatory, in Chile, in June 2010. TRAPPIST (TRAnsiting Planets and PlanetesImals Small Telescope) is devoted to the study of planetary systems through two approaches: the detection and characterisation of planets located outside the Solar System (exoplanets) and the study of comets orbiting around the Sun. The 60-cm national telescope is operated from a control room in Liège, Belgium, 12 000 km away.
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The globular cluster Omega Centauri was one of the targets observed for first light of the TRAPPIST national telescope at La Silla. The cluster contains as many as ten million stars. This image, 20 arcminutes across, shows only the central parts of Omega Centauri. It is made by combining data obtained through three filters (B, V and R). TRAPPIST (TRAnsiting Planets and PlanetesImals Small Telescope) is devoted to the study of planetary systems through two approaches: the detection and characterisation of planets located outside the Solar System (exoplanets) and the study of comets orbiting around the Sun. The 60-cm national telescope is operated from a control room in Liège, Belgium, 12 000 km away.
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A new robotic telescope had first light at ESO’s La Silla Observatory, in Chile, in June 2010. TRAPPIST (TRAnsiting Planets and PlanetesImals Small Telescope) is devoted to the study of planetary systems through two approaches: the detection and characterisation of planets located outside the Solar System (exoplanets) and the study of comets orbiting around the Sun. The 60-cm national telescope is operated from a control room in Liège, Belgium, 12 000 km away.
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Clouds encircle the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at ESO's La Silla Observatory in a spectacular scene, partially reminiscent of the Bespin Cloud City. The MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope — easily identifiable by its characteristic silver dome — hosts three instruments: the 67-million pixel Wide Field Imager (WFI); GROND, the Gamma-Ray Burst Optical/Near-Infrared Detector; and the high-resolution spectrograph, FEROS.
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The starry night invites to go out and look to the stars, even if you have professional telescopes at hand. The dome in the image belongs to the TRAPPIST robotic telescope, that had first light at ESO’s La Silla Observatory, in Chile, in June 2010. TRAPPIST stands for TRAnsiting Planets and PlanetesImals Small Telescope.
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A new robotic telescope had first light at ESO’s La Silla Observatory, in Chile, in June 2010. TRAPPIST (TRAnsiting Planets and PlanetesImals Small Telescope) is devoted to the study of planetary systems through two approaches: the detection and characterisation of planets located outside the Solar System (exoplanets) and the study of comets orbiting around the Sun. The 60-cm national telescope is operated from a control room in Liège, Belgium, 12 000 km away.
