RISE OF THE SUPER TELESCOPES:
The ExTrA telescopes are sited at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile. They will be used to search for and study Earth-sized planets orbiting nearby red dwarf stars. Credit: ESO/Emmanuela Rimbaud
Artist’s impression of rocky exoplanets orbiting Gliese 832, a red dwarf star just 16 light-years from Earth. Credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser/N. Risinger
The ExTrA telescopes are sited at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile. Credit: ESO/Petr Horálek
Artist’s impression of Proxima b, which was discovered using the Radial Velocity method. Credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser
A new national facility at ESO’s La Silla Observatory has successfully made its first observations. The ExTrA telescopes will search for and study Earth-sized planets orbiting nearby red dwarf stars. ExTrA’s novel design allows for much improved sensitivity compared to previous searches. Astronomers now have a powerful new tool to help in the search for potentially habitable worlds. This short ESOcast showcases this new facility. The video is available in 4K UHD. The ESOcast Light is a series of short videos bringing you the wonders of the Universe in bite-sized pieces. The ESOcast Light episodes will not be replacing the standard, longer ESOcasts, but complement them with current astronomy news and images in ESO press releases. : More information and download options Subscribe to ESOcast in iTunes! Receive future episodes on YouTube by pressing the Subscribe button above or follow us on Vimeo: Watch more ESOcast episodes: Find out how to view and contribute subtitles for the ESOcast in multiple languages, or translate this video on YouTube: Credit: ESO Editing: Nico Bartmann. Web and technical support: Mathias André and Raquel Yumi Shida. Written by: Nicole Shearer and Richard Hook. Music: Music written and performed by: John Stanford (johnstanfordmusic.com). Footage and photos: ESO, L. Calçada, spaceengine (spaceengine.org), M. Kornmesser, P. Horálek, N. Risinger (skysurvey.org), I. Crossfield. Directed by: Nico Bartmann.