SPECULOOS Project Makes Its First Observations
The SPECULOOS Southern Observatory (SSO) has been successfully installed at the Paranal Observatory and has obtained its first engineering and calibration images — a process known as first light. After finishing this commissioning phase, this new array of planet-hunting telescopes will begin scientific operations, starting in earnest in January 2019.
SSO is the core facility of a new exoplanet-hunting project called Search for habitable Planets EClipsing ULtra-cOOl Stars (SPECULOOS), and consists of four telescopes equipped with 1-metre primary mirrors. The telescopes — named Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto after the four Galilean moons of Jupiter — will enjoy pristine observing conditions at the Paranal site, which is also home to ESO's flagship Very Large Telescope (VLT). Paranal provides a near-perfect site for astronomy, with dark skies and a stable, arid climate.
These telescopes have a momentous task — SPECULOOS aims to search for potentially habitable Earth-sized planets surrounding ultra-cool stars or brown dwarfs, whose planetary populations are still mostly unexplored. Only a few exoplanets have been found orbiting such stars, and even fewer lie within their parent star's habitable zone. Even though these dim stars are hard to observe, they are abundant — comprising about 15% of the stars in the nearby universe. SPECULOOS is designed to explore 1000 such stars, including the nearest, brightest, and smallest, in search of Earth-sized habitable planets.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 11 2018, @12:26AM (8 children)
Have these "scientists" considered the possibility that if we find aliens, they'll trace the beams back to earth and then wipe everyone out (no exceptions) with a nasty brain-melting ray?
(Score: 1) by NateMich on Tuesday December 11 2018, @12:46AM (1 child)
No, because everything you think you know about space that you learned from science fiction, isn't relevant.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 11 2018, @12:55AM
That's what they said about HAL, and now we have Facebook.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Tuesday December 11 2018, @12:54AM
> a nasty brain-melting ray?
Look around. We're obviously working hard to counter the threat by making as little use of our brains as possible.
(Score: 3, Touché) by takyon on Tuesday December 11 2018, @12:54AM (1 child)
The photons are coming. You can either check them out or ignore them at your own peril.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 11 2018, @02:18AM
But what if it's like 'male gaze' - committing an assault by having your photoreceptors accept photons that were fired at you.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 11 2018, @02:22AM
then wipe everyone out (no exceptions) with a nasty brain-melting ray?
Well, as long as they don't come down and kick us in the balls first, I guess I can accept that.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Tuesday December 11 2018, @02:29AM (1 child)
I'm pretty sure I know the narrator to the orbiting brain laser animation, but I stopped looking through the hits upon stumbling across:
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday December 11 2018, @03:53AM
Not a good link for you to find. I wonder how much progress has been made in 20 years.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]