Hunting for other Earths

One of the most important searches for exoplanets in the next decade will be the Terra Hunting Experiment (THE), since it aims to detect Earth-mass planets in Earth-like orbits around solar-type stars. The search will  use the radial velocity method, i.e. searching for the motion of the star as star and planet orbit their common center of mass.  To measure the radial velocities, we are installing a new spectrograph on the Isaac Newton telescope in La Palma, as well as roboticising the telescope, and will then use roughly half the telescope time over ten years.

 

Exeter is a major partner in THE, which should start operations during the first year of this PhD; hence this will be an exciting time to be part of the project as we test the new hardware and develop the data analysis techniques we will require. Although we will not be able to detect Earths in one-year orbits in the first few years of data, we should detect higher-mass and shorter-period planets, and so this is an opportunity for a graduate student to be involved in the early operations and early science. This is a PhD project which might suit a student interested in developing instrumentation, or one interested in the science and data analysis aspects of finding planets.

 

For more information, please contact Tim Naylor